SUMMARY
When creating unmanned surface vehicles (USV), special attention is paid to the safety of navigation. One of the main threats at sea is the threat of collision. Two main directions of ensuring the safety of navigation can be distinguished. The first is legal regulation and a number of international documents that are binding on all ship-owners. The second is technical control systems and software, the purpose of which is ensuring the safety of navigation. This work is devoted to the issue of determining the level of collision danger and reaction to this danger from the system of automatic control of the course and speed of the USV, which acts as the object of study. The subject of research is management processes and algorithms. Given the significant danger that automatic mobile systems at sea can pose, maritime safety issues are a priority.The analysis of effective control systems for autonomous mobile vehicles shows that their creation is based on relatively simple, but fairly accurate abstract models of interacting media (physical and informational). Such models are the starting point for the creation of automated and automatic systems, which include USV as well. Paying attention to the technical side of the problem, it should be noted that determining the level of danger and the reaction to it from the side of the USV control system also requires some formalization.In this paper, a method is proposed for determining the danger of USV collision with other moving and stationary marine objects. The generalized algorithm of the control system for the course and speed of the USV is determined. The reaction of the propulsion (propulsive) system and the necessary composition of on-board equipment to ensure the safety of navigation are determined. It should be noted that in the work under the USV let’s mean small-tonnage (up to 1 t) surface self-propelled floating craft of the boat or boat type.The research results will be useful in constructing control systems based on fuzzy or neuro-fuzzy controllers.