Data Acquisition in a Manoeuver Auto-negotiation System

Typical approach to collision avoidance systems with artificial intelligence support is that such systems assume a central communication and management point (such as e.g. VTS station), usually located on shore. This approach is, however, not applicable in case of an open water encounter. Thus, recently a new approach towards collision avoidance has been proposed, assuming that all ships in the encounter, either restricted or open water, communicate with each other and negotiate their maneuvers, without involving any outer management or communication center. Usually the negotiation process is driven by the collision avoidance software and called auto-negotiation. This paper elaborates on data acquisition problem in case of the maneuver auto-negotiation. It focuses on ships' initialization in the system and data gathering.