Ship Berthing Information Extraction System Using Three-Dimensional Light Detection and Ranging Data

Safe and efficient berthing is essential to ensure maritime transportation and the safety of ships and ports. Three-dimensional (3D) light detection and ranging (LiDAR) can monitor and support ship berthing because it provides abundant target information and offers excellent advantages in measuring accuracy. Hence, a berthing information extraction system has been developed based on 3D LiDAR. Principal component analysis is used to calculate a ship's heading and the normal vector, and the feature points of the bow and stern are determined. The segments passing through the points are obtained via region growing. The bow and stern are recognized by the similarity of the normal vector of the segments and ship's heading according to the positions of the ship relative to the berth through visibility analysis. Qualitative and quantitative calculated analyses of the distance, velocity, and approach angle of the dynamic ship's bow and stern relative to the dock are performed based on the feature points of 3D LiDAR data. A laser scanner, used as the detection unit, efficiently monitored the Ro-Ro ship Ocean Island berthing at Lushun Port in field experiments. On-site applications demonstrated the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed method for the recognition of dynamic ship target and ensuring safe ship berthing.