Adaptive Temporal Reinforcement Learning for Mapping Complex Maritime Environmental State Spaces in Autonomous Ship Navigation

The autonomous decision-making model for ship navigation requires extensive interaction and trial-and-error in real, complex environments to ensure optimal decision-making performance and efficiency across various scenarios. However, existing approaches still encounter significant challenges in addr...

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Main Authors: Ruolan Zhang, Xinyu Qin, Mingyang Pan, Shaoxi Li, Helong Shen
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2025-03-01
Series:Journal of Marine Science and Engineering
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1312/13/3/514
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author Ruolan Zhang
Xinyu Qin
Mingyang Pan
Shaoxi Li
Helong Shen
author_facet Ruolan Zhang
Xinyu Qin
Mingyang Pan
Shaoxi Li
Helong Shen
author_sort Ruolan Zhang
collection DOAJ
description The autonomous decision-making model for ship navigation requires extensive interaction and trial-and-error in real, complex environments to ensure optimal decision-making performance and efficiency across various scenarios. However, existing approaches still encounter significant challenges in addressing the temporal features of state space and tackling complex dynamic collision avoidance tasks, primarily due to factors such as environmental uncertainty, the high dimensionality of the state space, and limited decision robustness. This paper proposes an adaptive temporal decision-making model based on reinforcement learning, which utilizes Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) networks to capture temporal features of the state space. The model integrates an enhanced Proximal Policy Optimization (PPO) algorithm for efficient policy iteration optimization. Additionally, a simulation training environment is constructed, incorporating multi-factor coupled physical properties and ship dynamics equations. The environment maps variables such as wind speed, current velocity, and wave height, along with dynamic ship parameters, while considering the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea (COLREGs) in training the autonomous navigation decision-making model. Experimental results demonstrate that, compared to other neural network-based reinforcement learning methods, the proposed model excels in environmental adaptability, collision avoidance success rate, navigation stability, and trajectory optimization. The model’s decision resilience and state-space mapping align with real-world navigation scenarios, significantly improving the autonomous decision-making capability of ships in dynamic sea conditions and providing critical support for the advancement of intelligent shipping.
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institution Kabale University
issn 2077-1312
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publishDate 2025-03-01
publisher MDPI AG
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series Journal of Marine Science and Engineering
spelling doaj-art-9f02f56c86b04d31a6e0461b267f7ca32025-08-20T03:43:12ZengMDPI AGJournal of Marine Science and Engineering2077-13122025-03-0113351410.3390/jmse13030514Adaptive Temporal Reinforcement Learning for Mapping Complex Maritime Environmental State Spaces in Autonomous Ship NavigationRuolan Zhang0Xinyu Qin1Mingyang Pan2Shaoxi Li3Helong Shen4Navigation College, Dalian Maritime University, Dalian 116026, ChinaNavigation College, Dalian Maritime University, Dalian 116026, ChinaNavigation College, Dalian Maritime University, Dalian 116026, ChinaNavigation College, Dalian Maritime University, Dalian 116026, ChinaNavigation College, Dalian Maritime University, Dalian 116026, ChinaThe autonomous decision-making model for ship navigation requires extensive interaction and trial-and-error in real, complex environments to ensure optimal decision-making performance and efficiency across various scenarios. However, existing approaches still encounter significant challenges in addressing the temporal features of state space and tackling complex dynamic collision avoidance tasks, primarily due to factors such as environmental uncertainty, the high dimensionality of the state space, and limited decision robustness. This paper proposes an adaptive temporal decision-making model based on reinforcement learning, which utilizes Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) networks to capture temporal features of the state space. The model integrates an enhanced Proximal Policy Optimization (PPO) algorithm for efficient policy iteration optimization. Additionally, a simulation training environment is constructed, incorporating multi-factor coupled physical properties and ship dynamics equations. The environment maps variables such as wind speed, current velocity, and wave height, along with dynamic ship parameters, while considering the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea (COLREGs) in training the autonomous navigation decision-making model. Experimental results demonstrate that, compared to other neural network-based reinforcement learning methods, the proposed model excels in environmental adaptability, collision avoidance success rate, navigation stability, and trajectory optimization. The model’s decision resilience and state-space mapping align with real-world navigation scenarios, significantly improving the autonomous decision-making capability of ships in dynamic sea conditions and providing critical support for the advancement of intelligent shipping.https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1312/13/3/514Maritime Autonomous Surface Shipsstate space mappingProximal Policy Optimizationdynamic collision avoidancedecision-making resilience
spellingShingle Ruolan Zhang
Xinyu Qin
Mingyang Pan
Shaoxi Li
Helong Shen
Adaptive Temporal Reinforcement Learning for Mapping Complex Maritime Environmental State Spaces in Autonomous Ship Navigation
Journal of Marine Science and Engineering
Maritime Autonomous Surface Ships
state space mapping
Proximal Policy Optimization
dynamic collision avoidance
decision-making resilience
title Adaptive Temporal Reinforcement Learning for Mapping Complex Maritime Environmental State Spaces in Autonomous Ship Navigation
title_full Adaptive Temporal Reinforcement Learning for Mapping Complex Maritime Environmental State Spaces in Autonomous Ship Navigation
title_fullStr Adaptive Temporal Reinforcement Learning for Mapping Complex Maritime Environmental State Spaces in Autonomous Ship Navigation
title_full_unstemmed Adaptive Temporal Reinforcement Learning for Mapping Complex Maritime Environmental State Spaces in Autonomous Ship Navigation
title_short Adaptive Temporal Reinforcement Learning for Mapping Complex Maritime Environmental State Spaces in Autonomous Ship Navigation
title_sort adaptive temporal reinforcement learning for mapping complex maritime environmental state spaces in autonomous ship navigation
topic Maritime Autonomous Surface Ships
state space mapping
Proximal Policy Optimization
dynamic collision avoidance
decision-making resilience
url https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1312/13/3/514
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AT xinyuqin adaptivetemporalreinforcementlearningformappingcomplexmaritimeenvironmentalstatespacesinautonomousshipnavigation
AT mingyangpan adaptivetemporalreinforcementlearningformappingcomplexmaritimeenvironmentalstatespacesinautonomousshipnavigation
AT shaoxili adaptivetemporalreinforcementlearningformappingcomplexmaritimeenvironmentalstatespacesinautonomousshipnavigation
AT helongshen adaptivetemporalreinforcementlearningformappingcomplexmaritimeenvironmentalstatespacesinautonomousshipnavigation