Maritime Transport Network in Korea: Spatial-Temporal Density and Path Planning

The increase in maritime traffic and vessel size has strengthened the need for economical and safe maritime transportation networks. Currently, ship path planning is based on past experience and shortest route usage. However, the increasing complexity of the marine environment and the development of autonomous ships require automatic shortest path generation based on maritime traffic networks. This paper proposes an efficient shortest path planning method using Dijkstra's algorithm based on a maritime traffic network dataset created by extracting maritime traffic routes through a spatial-temporal density analysis of large-scale AIS data and Delaunay triangulation. Additionally, the depth information of all digital charts in Korea was set as a safety contour to support safe path planning. The proposed network-based shortest path planning method was compared with the path planning and sailing distance of a training ship, and compliance with maritime laws was verified. The results demonstrate the practicality and safety of the proposed method, which can enable the establishment of a safe and efficient maritime transportation network along with the development of autonomous ships.