Path Planning for USV Considering Risk Factors in Complex Marine Areas

With the development of intelligent unmanned systems, Unmanned Surface Vehicles (USVs) have become key intelligent equipment in the marine field, and the safety issues regarding path planning have become increasingly important. This study proposes a risk assessment and path planning method for USVs in complex environments, aiming to ensure the navigation efficiency and safety of USVs. Firstly, through spatial interpolation techniques, dynamic parameters such as waves, currents, and winds, as well as static elements like coastlines, are integrated to establish a risk indicator system for the complex marine environment. Secondly, the multi-criteria decision analysis method is utilized to comprehensively determine the weights of various indicators and establish a risk field for the complex marine environment. Finally, based on the marine risk field, an improved A* algorithm is adopted. By setting a safe distance and optimizing nodes, the optimal path with the lowest total risk value is selected, effectively improving the efficiency and safety of the path planned by USVs.