Situation avoidance systems for marine vessels

A marine vessel comprising a control unit for controlling the marine vessel to avoid an undesired situation, the control unit comprising processing circuitry and a storage medium, wherein the control unit is configured to receive path data from one or more sensor devices indicative of a path traveled by the marine vessel in a forward direction and to store the received path data by the storage medium, wherein the control unit is configured to receive a trigger signal from an input device, and, in response to the trigger signal, autonomously navigate the marine vessel by being configured to determine a location for turning the marine vessel around, navigate to the location, turn the marine vessel around at the location, and navigate the marine vessel along the path in reverse direction;

• wherein the control unit is configured to determine the location for turning the marine vessel around by being configured to:
• determine one or more candidate locations;
• calculate, for the one or more candidate locations, corresponding one or more costs, each based on one or more metrics and corresponding one or more weights;
• and
• select the location from among the one or more candidate locations based on the one or more costs.

A method for controlling a marine vessel to avoid an emergency situation, the method comprising:

• receiving path data from one or more sensor devices indicative of a path traveled by the marine vessel in a forward direction,
• storing the received path data,
• receiving a trigger signal from an input device, and
• in response to the trigger signal, autonomously navigating, by processing circuitry of a control unit, the marine vessel by determining a location for turning the marine vessel around, navigating to the location, turning the marine vessel around at the location, and navigating the marine vessel along the path in reverse direction;
• wherein determining the location for turning the marine vessel around comprises:
• determining one or more candidate locations;
• calculating, for the one or more candidate locations, corresponding one or more costs, each based on one or more metrics and corresponding one or more weights;
• and
• selecting the location from among the one or more candidate locations based on the one or more costs.

A non-transitory computer-readable medium having stored thereon a computer program that, when executed by processing circuitry of a control unit, causes the processing circuitry to:

• receive path data from one or more sensor devices indicative of a path traveled by a marine vessel in a forward direction,
• store the received path data,
• receive a trigger signal from an input device, and
• in response to the trigger signal, autonomously navigate the marine vessel by causing the processing circuitry to:
• determine a location for turning the marine vessel around;
• navigate to the location;
• turn the marine vessel around at the location;
• and
• navigate the marine vessel along the path in reverse direction;
• wherein the computer program causes the processing circuitry to determine the location for turning the marine vessel around by causing the processing circuitry to:
• determine one or more candidate locations;
• calculate, for the one or more candidate locations, corresponding one or more costs, each based on one or more metrics and corresponding one or more weights;
• and
• select the location from among the one or more candidate locations based on the one or more costs.