Exploiting AIS Data for Intelligent Maritime Navigation: A Comprehensive Survey

The Automatic Identification System (AIS) tracks vessel movement by means of electronic exchange of navigation data between vessels, with onboard transceiver, terrestrial and/or satellite base stations. The gathered data contains a wealth of information useful for maritime safety, security and efficiency. This paper surveys AIS data sources and relevant aspects of navigation in which such data is or could be exploited for safety of seafaring, namely traffic anomaly detection, route estimation, collision prediction and path planning.