A Quantificational Description Method of Vessel Track Based on AIS Data

The more accurate the vessel track can be described, the more information can be provided for analyzing the characteristic of vessel traffic, the path of the vessel, and the accidents on the water. Based on AIS information, a new method of describing the vessel track is designed. The line track when the vessel is on a straight course can be described by a line with a quantificational slope. The curve track when the vessel is in the beginning and ending turning process can be described by cubic curve with two quantificational boundary conditions. The curve track when the vessel is in steady circle can be described by an arc with quantificational center point, radius and course angle. For a case study, a serial AIS information is selected to describ the track using this method. The track is analyzed by more frequent GPS information. The results show that the track described by the method in this paper is more similar to the real track, and the errors are smaller, especially when the vessel is turning course.