Proposal for Low Cost Ocean Weather Routeing

Abstract

This paper presents a concept for selecting a fixed time ocean route via a prefixed grid of points. The ship is to sail with a fixed pitch propeller rotating at a constant rate N. The starting and arrival points A and B are given, as well as the starting and arrival times t0and t1. The criterion is to obtain a route with a minimal value of N. The method is designed for a discrete navigating system. Thus it can be seen as an application of Bellman's Dynamic Programming Theory1. The ship's speed is estimated with the use of a modern algorithm, based on a well founded and well tested hydrodynamic model.