Simulated collision avoidance manoeuvres: A parametric study

Research on ships’ meeting encounters has taken two main forms: analysis of shore-based radar track data, and the direct study of watchkeeper behaviour using ship simulators. The former type of study has established that ships’ behaviour in meeting encounters is to some degree predictable, and can be modelled by mathematical functions. Potentially, this is of use in surveillance systems, where behaviour deviating from the norm can be automatically monitored in real time. However, simulator studies, whilst finding a degree of predictability in meeting encounters, have access to the observable behaviour of individual watchkeepers in a way that radar-based studies do not. It seems useful to bring these two lines of inquiry closer together: to provide the encounter-modelling approaches with a source of data obtained under experimental control to supplement the remote observations, and to apply theoretical model-fitting to the experimental data obtained in the simulator studies. This will enable more detailed interpretation of behavioural differences between individual watchkeepers.