Lidar-Based Obstacle Detection and Path Prediction for Unmanned Surface Vehicles

Unmanned Surface Vehicles (USVs) represent an advanced technology with a wide range of applications in maritime contexts, and they offer a promising alternative to manned systems, particularly for the provision of services such as riverbed mapping. Furthermore, the use of USVs in combination with other robotic systems, such as flying drones, remotely operated underwater vehicles (ROVs) and autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs), opens up innovative ways to inspect and monitor maritime infrastructure. However, the use of these systems in dynamic environments, such as ports or shipping lanes, requires a high degree of adaptability and precision in navigation to manoeuvre safely between other traffic participants and obstacles to prevent collisions. To address this problem, USVs require sophisticated perception systems for the precise detection and classification of nearby objects. Leveraging Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) technology, which is renowned for its efficacy in obstacle avoidance in robotics, this paper outlines the adaptation of a LiDAR sensor for USVs. The proposed pipeline enables the detection of other moving vessels and the accurate determination of their positions and trajectories up to 150 m from the USV. This paper introduces an obstacle detection system and validates it within a port setting. A methodical approach to LiDAR data preprocessing, clustering, and point cloud extraction will be outlined. Furthermore, it explores the application of an Unscented Kalman Filter (UKF) for the projection of motion paths of identified entities. This advanced form of data analysis provides the ability to predict the future position and path of potential obstacles, optimize decision-making for autonomous navigation algorithms and significantly improve the safety of USV operations. The pipeline is tested experimentally in sea trials by enacting five different scenarios that USV may encounter in a port setting. The results of the pipeline's tracking capabilities are compared to the ground truth data collected by the tracked vessel and plotted to visualize the error.