An Efficient Navigation Algorithm for Unmanned Surface Vehicles in Dynamic Environments
摘要
Unmanned surface vehicles (USVs) are increasingly utilized in complex maritime tasks such as harbor surveillance, coastal monitoring, and port patrols. Safe navigation in congested and dynamic waters requires a unified framework for perception, mapping, planning, and control. This paper presents a fully integrated navigation system for a catamaran-style USV operating in crowded harbor environments. The system forms a closed loop from multi-sensor perception to motion execution. It fuses data from GPS, IMU, 3D LiDAR, and cameras for real-time SLAM and obstacle detection. Robust localization is achieved with a LiDAR–inertial odometry algorithm (LIO-SAM) enhanced by GPS/IMU fusion via an Extended Kalman Filter. Path planning combines a global A* planner on occupancy maps with a local Dynamic Window Approach (DWA) for dynamic obstacle avoidance. Motion execution is handled by a dual-loop PID controller regulating linear and angular velocities. The framework is validated in high-fidelity Gazebo harbor simulations, demonstrating safe navigation toward waypoints while avoiding static and moving obstacles. Results show that integrating SLAM, A*-based global planning, and DWA local refinement significantly improves autonomy. The architecture emphasizes efficiency, modularity, and extensibility, supporting future vision-based perception for enhanced safety in dynamic maritime environments.