Study of the feasibility of the ship-weather routing algorithm simroutev2 on short sea shipping routes

Abstract

Ship routing systems are gaining importance in the maritime sector as the use of these systems can lead to the reduction of fuel usage and reduce costs. Therefore, a mitigation of carbon emissions and improvement of maritime safety happens due to the avoidance of bad weather conditions. The implementation of pathfinding algorithms to determine the optimal ship rout- ing has been widely used for transoceanic distances. However, the evaluation of short distance routes with ship-weather routing algorithms is still scarce, due to the low spatial resolution of wave scripts. Therefore, this project investigates in which weather conditions the algorithm SIMROUTEv2 is feasible or not. This system was developed to obtain the optimal route and the minimum distance route recovered from the pathfinding algorithm A*. Ship routing analy- sis was studied on four relative routes related to five ports in the Western Mediterranean Sea, paying attention to the Short Sea Shipping activities and the Ro-Pax and Ro-Ro services. The methodology was based on the inclusion of the added resistance by waves on the vessel, the impact of which is significant in terms of time. The work established the basis of further de- velopment in routes optimisation utilized in comparatively short-distances and its systematic use in the Short Sea Shipping maritime industry.