Session: 08-01-02 Hydrodynamic Interaction and Unsteady Effects

Submission Number: 157648

Towards a Ship Simulator Using Advanced Multi-Sensor Fusion for Maritime Navigation and Environmental Awareness 

Accurate environment sensing is crucial for maritime applications, especially in vessel tracking and obstacle avoidance within dynamic ocean settings. We propose a Virtual Reality (VR) based ship simulator that will help the marine personnel in enhancing their understanding of the realistic sea environment. The simulator is built in modules that include algorithms for ship detection, localization, ship dynamics, and autopilot control in a VR setup.  Initially, the system is trained on a custom dataset of over 85,000 real maritime images. This dataset includes diverse sea conditions, weather variations, and lighting scenarios, ensuring the model's adaptability and robustness across multiple operational environments. Advanced computer vision techniques are employed to optimize accuracy, leveraging image feature extraction. Localization is carried out by two means viz, depth sensing using LiDAR and optical sensing using stereo cameras. By integrating LiDAR with traditional optical sensing, the proposed multi-vision sensor system overcomes common issues like varying lighting, reflections, and occlusions, enhancing depth accuracy and ensuring reliable performance in real-world maritime scenarios.

Extensive testing was conducted using a Unity-based simulation platform that replicates real-world ocean dynamics, including calm waters and waves. These simulations demonstrated the system's effectiveness in accurately detecting and estimating the positions of vessels. This AI-driven approach not only boosts sensing precision but also increases the safety and efficiency of maritime operations. Our work lays the groundwork for future advancements in autonomous maritime systems and highlights the potential of sensor fusion technology in the development of next-generation naval and offshore applications.

Presenting Author: Suresh Rajendran IIT Madras

Presenting Author Biography: Suresh Rajendran is an Associate Professor in the Dept of Ocean Engineering at IIT Madras. He specializes in ship dynamics and hydrodynamics and AI/ML applied to ocean engineering applications.