Advances in Intelligent Situation Awareness, Decision-Making and Control for Autonomous Ships

Dear Colleagues,

Aims and Scope:
The maritime industry is undergoing a profound transformation driven by rapid advancements in artificial intelligence (AI), sensor technologies, and autonomous control systems. The development of intelligent ships—capable of perceiving complex environments, making informed decisions, and executing safe and efficient maneuvers without human intervention—has emerged as a key frontier in both academic research and industrial application.

However, fully autonomous ships face multifaceted challenges in dynamic maritime environments, including uncertain weather, dense traffic, regulatory constraints, and cyber-physical risks. Critical to addressing these challenges are three interrelated capabilities:

1. Situation Awareness: Accurate real-time perception of the ship's surroundings, integrating data from radar, AIS, LiDAR, cameras, and environmental sensors.
2. Intelligent Decision-Making: Robust algorithms for collision avoidance, route planning, risk assessment, and compliance with COLREGs and international maritime regulations.
3. Control and Maneuvering: Adaptive control systems capable of executing complex maneuvers in real-world scenarios, accounting for hydrodynamic forces, system uncertainties, and unexpected disturbances.

This Special Issue seeks to bring together cutting-edge research contributions from academia and industry, addressing theoretical advancements, algorithmic innovations, and practical implementations in these domains. We welcome both foundational research and applied studies that push the boundaries of autonomous ship technologies.

Topics of interest (including but not limited to):

• Multi-sensor fusion and perception algorithms for maritime situation awareness.
• Machine learning and deep learning models for object detection, tracking, and classification at sea.
• Risk-based decision-making frameworks for autonomous navigation.
• AI-based collision avoidance strategies aligned with COLREGs.
• Explainable and trustworthy AI for ship autonomy.
• Reinforcement learning and optimization approaches for path planning and control.
• Cooperative decision-making for autonomous ship swarms and VTS (vessel traffic service) integration.
• Digital twins, simulation environments, and hardware-in-the-loop testing for autonomous ship development.
• Cybersecurity, fault tolerance, and resilience strategies in intelligent ship systems.
• Case studies, field trials, and real-world deployments of intelligent ship technologies.

Impact and Significance:
This Special Issue is poised to make significant contributions to the maritime research community by the following:

• Providing a consolidated platform for the latest breakthroughs in intelligent ship technologies.
• Bridging theoretical research with industrial applications and regulatory perspectives.
• Highlighting emerging trends and identifying open challenges for future exploration.
• Supporting the broader goal of safer, more efficient, and environmentally sustainable maritime transport.

In light of the growing global interest and investment in smart shipping, this Special Issue will serve as a timely, high-impact forum to disseminate pioneering research in intelligent situation awareness, decision-making, and control systems. We are confident that the collective contributions will set a strong foundation for the future of autonomous maritime operations.

Dr. Mingyang Zhang
Prof. Dr. Wengang Mao
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Journal of Marine Science and Engineering is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• autonomous ships
• situation awareness
• intelligent decision-making
• control and maneuvering
• machine learning
• deep learning models
• AI