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Development of a novel forward dynamic programming method for weather routing

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Abstract

This paper presents a novel forward dynamic programming method for weather routing to minimise ship fuel consumption during a voyage. Compared with traditional weather routing methods which only optimise the ship’s heading, while the engine power or propeller rotation speed is set as a constant throughout the voyage, this new method considers both the ship power settings and heading controls. A float state technique is used to reduce the iterations required during optimisation and thus save computation time. This new method could lead to quasi-global optimal routing in comparison with the traditional weather routing methods.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK

    Wei Shao & Peilin Zhou

  2. College of Energy and Power Engineering, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan, China

    Peilin Zhou

  3. APL Co Pte Ltd, Singapore, Singapore

    Sew Kait Thong

Authors
  1. Wei Shao
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  2. Peilin Zhou
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  3. Sew Kait Thong
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Wei Shao.

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Shao, W., Zhou, P. & Thong, S.K. Development of a novel forward dynamic programming method for weather routing. J Mar Sci Technol 17, 239–251 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00773-011-0152-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00773-011-0152-z

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