-->PONE-D-25-67263-->-->AIS Data-Driven maac–Stackelberg Multi-Ship Cooperative Collision Avoidance Algorithm-->-->PLOS One

Dear Dr. Xu,

Thank you for submitting your manuscript to PLOS ONE. After careful consideration, we feel that it has merit but does not fully meet PLOS ONE’s publication criteria as it currently stands. Therefore, we invite you to submit a revised version of the manuscript that addresses the points raised during the review process.

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We look forward to receiving your revised manuscript.

Kind regards,

Yile Chen, Ph.D. in Architecture

Academic Editor

PLOS One

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Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

-->Comments to the Author

1. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented. -->

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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-->2. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously? -->

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

**********

-->3. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.-->

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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-->4. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here.-->

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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-->5. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)-->

Reviewer #1: 1. The paper demonstrates good originality and practicality. I recommend publishing after minor revisions.

2. 4.3. Experimental results. Table 3: Performance improvement compared to drl–colregs.

It is recommended to add a multi-ship collision AIS trajectory diagram case to visually demonstrate the practical application of the algorithm in Collision Rate Reduction.

Reviewer #2: The overall quality of this thesis is acceptable, with clear innovative points that possess certain practical and theoretical reference value. The paper has a complete structure, well-organized sentences, and coherent argumentation logic, being able to support the core argument based on relevant evidence. However, some individual sentences have issues of imprecise expression or slight redundancy, which require further revision and refinement to make the presentation of the full text more concise and rigorous.

1. There is inconsistent capitalization of core abbreviations in the paper (e.g., "COLREGs" and "AIS" are sometimes written as "colregs" and "ais" without consistent capitalization), and some abbreviations are not fully annotated upon their first occurrence in the main sections. Consistently capitalize all core abbreviations throughout the paper (i.e., AIS, MAAC, COLREGs, BN, LSTM), and clearly present the full name followed by the abbreviation when each is first mentioned, e.g., Automatic Identification System (AIS).

2. For Fig. 1 (the algorithm framework diagram), only "including the Risk Attitude Perception Layer and the Decision Execution Layer" is described, without clarifying the data flow between the two layers (e.g., how LSTM prediction results are transmitted to BN, and how fused features are input into the MAAC-Stackelberg module). For radar charts, heatmaps, and other figures (Fig. 7–10), only conclusions are provided, with no supplementary interpretation of key data nodes (e.g., the specific value of "Pure MAAC" in the compliance rate dimension in Fig. 7 and the reasons for the differences from the proposed algorithm). Add 1–2 sentences of logical connection and detailed interpretation in the description paragraphs corresponding to these figures.

3. The formatting of the action space expression in Formula (25) is incomplete (missing a closing symbol at the end); the dynamic parameter "a" in Formula (1) is not defined in the context; the units of some variables in the formulas are not specified. 1) Correct the formatting error of Formula (25) by adding the missing closing symbol; 2) Supplement the definition of the parameter "a" in Formula (1) or correct it if it is a typo, and clarify the units of all variables (e.g., unify the unit of Δv_max to "kn"); 3) Add brief explanations for the weight parameters (e.g., α, β) in Formula (8) (Weibull distribution) and Formula (13) (comprehensive risk index) (e.g., "α is a shape parameter reflecting the concentration of collision avoidance behaviors").

4. The web link in the references does not make sence, it is suggested to delete them.

5. There are inconsistent expressions of the algorithm name in the paper, such as "maac–Stackelberg", "MAAC-Game–Risk", and "MAAC-Stackelberg"; the hyphenation of "multi-ship" is inconsistent (e.g., "multi-ship", "multi ship", "multiship"). Unify the algorithm name as "MAAC-Stackelberg" (capitalize the initial letters and connect with an English hyphen) and standardize the expression as "multi-ship" throughout the paper.

6. It is suggested to further clarify the paper’s contribution, polish the language, and eliminate colloquialisms.

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-->6. PLOS authors have the option to publish the peer review history of their article (what does this mean?). If published, this will include your full peer review and any attached files.

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Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: No

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[NOTE: If reviewer comments were submitted as an attachment file, they will be attached to this email and accessible via the submission site. Please log into your account, locate the manuscript record, and check for the action link "View Attachments". If this link does not appear, there are no attachment files.]

To ensure your figures meet our technical requirements, please review our figure guidelines: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/figures

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NAAS will assess whether your figures meet our technical requirements by comparing each figure against our figure specifications.

-->PONE-D-25-67263R1-->-->AIS Data-Driven maac–Stackelberg Multi-Ship Cooperative Collision Avoidance Algorithm-->-->PLOS One

Dear Dr. Xu,

Thank you for submitting your manuscript to PLOS ONE. After careful consideration, we feel that it has merit but does not fully meet PLOS ONE’s publication criteria as it currently stands. Therefore, we invite you to submit a revised version of the manuscript that addresses the points raised during the review process.

Please submit your revised manuscript by Apr 09 2026 11:59PM. If you will need more time than this to complete your revisions, please reply to this message or contact the journal office at plosone@plos.org. When you're ready to submit your revision, log on to https://www.editorialmanager.com/pone/ and select the 'Submissions Needing Revision' folder to locate your manuscript file.

Please include the following items when submitting your revised manuscript:-->

• A letter that responds to each point raised by the academic editor and reviewer(s). You should upload this letter as a separate file labeled 'Response to Reviewers'.
• A marked-up copy of your manuscript that highlights changes made to the original version. You should upload this as a separate file labeled 'Revised Manuscript with Track Changes'.
• An unmarked version of your revised paper without tracked changes. You should upload this as a separate file labeled 'Manuscript'.

-->If you would like to make changes to your financial disclosure, please include your updated statement in your cover letter. Guidelines for resubmitting your figure files are available below the reviewer comments at the end of this letter.

If applicable, we recommend that you deposit your laboratory protocols in protocols.io to enhance the reproducibility of your results. Protocols.io assigns your protocol its own identifier (DOI) so that it can be cited independently in the future. For instructions see: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/submission-guidelines#loc-laboratory-protocols. Additionally, PLOS ONE offers an option for publishing peer-reviewed Lab Protocol articles, which describe protocols hosted on protocols.io. Read more information on sharing protocols at https://plos.org/protocols?utm_medium=editorial-email&utm_source=authorletters&utm_campaign=protocols.

We look forward to receiving your revised manuscript.

Kind regards,

Yile Chen, Ph.D. in Architecture

Academic Editor

PLOS One

Journal Requirements:

If the reviewer comments include a recommendation to cite specific previously published works, please review and evaluate these publications to determine whether they are relevant and should be cited. There is no requirement to cite these works unless the editor has indicated otherwise.

Please review your reference list to ensure that it is complete and correct. If you have cited papers that have been retracted, please include the rationale for doing so in the manuscript text, or remove these references and replace them with relevant current references. Any changes to the reference list should be mentioned in the rebuttal letter that accompanies your revised manuscript. If you need to cite a retracted article, indicate the article’s retracted status in the References list and also include a citation and full reference for the retraction notice.

Additional Editor Comments :

The reviewers generally approved the manuscript. However, some expression issues require revision, and attention should be paid to accurate English grammar.

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Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

-->Comments to the Author

1. If the authors have adequately addressed your comments raised in a previous round of review and you feel that this manuscript is now acceptable for publication, you may indicate that here to bypass the “Comments to the Author” section, enter your conflict of interest statement in the “Confidential to Editor” section, and submit your "Accept" recommendation.-->

Reviewer #2: All comments have been addressed

Reviewer #3: (No Response)

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-->2. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented. -->

Reviewer #2: Yes

Reviewer #3: Yes

**********

-->3. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously? -->

Reviewer #2: Yes

Reviewer #3: Yes

**********

-->4. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.-->

Reviewer #2: Yes

Reviewer #3: No

**********

-->5. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here.-->

Reviewer #2: Yes

Reviewer #3: Yes

**********

-->6. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)-->

Reviewer #2: (No Response)

Reviewer #3: The innovation and structure of the manuscript are generally acceptable for publication. Minor revisions are required as follows:

1. Duplicated parameters exist in Table 1. Please revise the description of related parameters and use alternative notations for relative orientation symbols to avoid confusion with other symbols throughout the manuscript.

2. In Eq. (32) ,the selection criterion of the exploration noise coefficient is not specified. Additionally, please add a schematic diagram of the algorithm for better illustration.

3. The presentation in Section 4.4.1 (statistical significance test) should be further improved; the comparison of advantages among different algorithms in Section 4.3.3 needs to be more concise.

4. The overall language and writing style of the manuscript should be further polished

**********

-->7. PLOS authors have the option to publish the peer review history of their article (what does this mean?). If published, this will include your full peer review and any attached files.

If you choose “no”, your identity will remain anonymous but your review may still be made public.

Do you want your identity to be public for this peer review? For information about this choice, including consent withdrawal, please see our Privacy Policy.-->

Reviewer #2: No

Reviewer #3: No

**********

[NOTE: If reviewer comments were submitted as an attachment file, they will be attached to this email and accessible via the submission site. Please log into your account, locate the manuscript record, and check for the action link "View Attachments". If this link does not appear, there are no attachment files.]

To ensure your figures meet our technical requirements, please review our figure guidelines: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/figures

You may also use PLOS’s free figure tool, NAAS, to help you prepare publication quality figures: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/figures#loc-tools-for-figure-preparation.

NAAS will assess whether your figures meet our technical requirements by comparing each figure against our figure specifications.

-->

AIS Data-Driven MAAC-Stackelberg Multi-Ship Cooperative Collision Avoidance Algorithm

PONE-D-25-67263R2

Dear Dr. Xu,

We’re pleased to inform you that your manuscript has been judged scientifically suitable for publication and will be formally accepted for publication once it meets all outstanding technical requirements.

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Kind regards,

Yile Chen, Ph.D. in Architecture

Academic Editor

PLOS One

Additional Editor Comments (optional):

Reviewers' comments: