J Mar Sci Technol DOI 10.

1007/s00773-011-0116-3

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Optimal ship tracking on a navigation route between two ports: a hydrodynamics approach
J. K. Panigrahi C. P. Padhy D. Sen J. Swain O. Larsen

Received: 20 July 2010 / Accepted: 9 January 2011 JASNAOE 2011

Abstract The optimal trajectory from Calcutta port to Mumbai port is charted for a tanker transshipping from the East coast to the West coast of India during rough weather. Rough weather is simulated over Indian seas using the state-of-the-art WAM numerical wave model (WAMDI Group in J Phys Oceanogr 18:17751810, 1988), assimilating satellite (IRS-P4) wind elds. These simulated wave elds and two-dimensional (2D) directional wave spectrum are an absolute representation of the irregular seaway. Hence, the same for the monsoon month of August 2000 formed the input basis for this study. Loss of ship speed due to the wave eld (i.e., nonlinear motion of the tanker in waves) and associated sea-keeping characteristics in the seaway are estimated (Bhattacharya in Dynamics of marine vehicles, Wiley, New York, 1978). The approach adopted in this paper is unique in that it takes into account both voluntary and involuntary speed reductions of the ship. It helps in ship tracking by the optimum route using inverse velocity as the weight function for the path in an efcient way. Dijkstras algorithm [Numer Math 1(3):269271, 1959] is applied in an iterative manner for determining the optimum track. The optimum track information has broad scope for use in modern shipping industry for obtaining

safe and least-time routing by avoiding schedule delays with economic fuel consumption. Keywords Ship behavior Surface waves Ship routing WAM model OTSR

1 Introduction Optimum tracking of ship routes (OTSR) involves providing a vessel with a route recommendation prior to sailing and thereafter closely monitoring the progress of the vessel en route, and updating the master to ensure the vessel achieves either the earliest possible safe arrival or arrives safely at the required time. This service is also of great use on coastal routes, by providing the master with advance warning of heavy weather conditions which may be encountered. Hence, ship routing is an essential prerequisite for all navigators for planning their voyage in any part of the world ocean. The complexities involved in OTSR demand multidisciplinary expertise such as wave forecasting, ship behavior in the seaway, navigation, path optimization, etc. In this study, the authors demonstrate the minimal time path for a tanker in transit to Mumbai port from Calcutta port sailing through the Bay of Bengal and Arabian Sea. The state-of-the-art WAM wave model [1] is implemented for establishing the wave climate over a regional grid system of the Indian Ocean. Rough weather is simulated, assimilating IRS-P4 [multifrequency scanning microwave radiometer (MSMR)] analyzed wind elds into the wave model for the monsoon month of August 2000. The model predicted synoptic wave elds help in alerting the ship in advance and simplify the navigators decision regarding the optimum track to be navigated from departure to destination in a known wave eld. This brings out

J. K. Panigrahi (&) O. Larsen DHI-NTU Research Centre, DHI Water and Environment, 200, Pandan Loop, Pantech-21, Singapore 128388, Singapore e-mail: jkp@dhigroup.com C. P. Padhy D. Sen Department of Ocean Engineering and Naval Architecture, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, India J. Swain Naval Physical and Oceanographic Laboratory, Kochi 682021, India

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the characteristics of the rough waves that the ship will encounter en route. It is obvious that wind, wave, and current impact on ship velocity in the open ocean. However, waves have maximum impact on the ship due to their periodic undulation, which signicantly alters ship velocity in an irregular seaway. While sailing, the cost of time spent at sea by a ship has always been an important factor in the overall cost of ship operation. Hence, the numerical model under discussion is based on minimum travel time between a specied origin and destination point. In the simplest case, the behavior of the ship is represented by loss of speed due to the wave eld. A similar velocity reduction is estimated in this study using sea-keeping characteristics as suggested by Bhattacharya [2]. Furthermore, using the inverse velocity as the weight function for a given path and optimization algorithm [3], the minimal time path for the ship is obtained. 1.1 Historical perspective of OTSR Many efforts [4] have been devoted to minimization of time spent at sea, such as increasing the power for achieving speed, aerodynamic and hydrodynamic shape of the ship, etc. The state of the sea determines the upper bound of the attainable speed for each ship. The advent of extended range forecasting and the development of selective climatology, along with powerful computer modeling techniques, have made ship routing systems possible. The ability to effectively advise ships to take advantage of favorable weather was hampered previously by forecast limitations and the lack of an effective communication system. In marine navigation, rough weather routing has long been neglected due to the unavailability of systematic wave observations and regular wave forecasts over the Indian Ocean for the past several years [5]. Hence, it was not possible to operationally forecast minimal time ship routes based on sea state. In recent years, with the launch of satellites and advancement of wave modeling, many operational satellites and numerical models (WAVEWATCH III, WAM, SWAN, and OSW/SW-Mike21) can give wind-wave parameters on a coarse and ne grid resolution over the world ocean. Hence, it has become feasible to carry out routine wave forecasting and provide optimal ship routes using these meteorological products. 1.2 Literature review Originally, the concept of OTSR evolved in the US Navy for minimal time routing of warships. Hence, most of the literature in this area is of defense interest and classied. Subsequently, the problem of obtaining an optimal ship trajectory attracted the attention of many civilian researchers. In this context, a few pertinent reports are cited here to assess the evolution of research in this eld.

In the past, Hanssen and James [6] demonstrated an optimum ship route under stationary weather conditions. Development of more realistic routing mechanisms using variational methods assuming ship speed under maximum power to be independent of time was attempted by Haltiner et al. [7]. Models based on numerical methods to propose an optimal trajectory were attempted by Faulkner [8]. Employing Pontryagins maximum principle, ship routing problems were studied using a rectilinear, spherical coordinate system, advocating solution of a system with three nonlinear differential equations with appropriate boundary conditions to provide an optimal ship trajectory. These models, however, had constraints pertaining to undesired ship motions and treatment of continental obstacles. Zoppoli [9] formulated the minimal time algorithm as an N-stage discrete process subjected to stochastic and dynamic conditions. A deterministic dynamic programming procedure was carried out on a grid system similar to that used by Zoppoli [9] to investigate the total voyage time. Mitchell and Papadimitriou [10] investigated the shortest path through a weighted planar subdivision. Optimum routing in the past was attempted based on longterm weather conditions and sea-keeping criteria. Typically, routes were planned based on a set of generic speed-reduction curves to predict ship position and anticipated weather conditions along the intended course [11]. The weakness of this rather oversimplied method is that it does not guarantee an optimal path, since combinations of all possible paths may not be investigated. In addition, factors related to involuntary speed reduction are not taken into account. Several authors discussed the problem of ship weather routing in different ways to nd a minimal time solution, viz. variational calculus method, broken extremal approach, isochrone method, etc. These approaches, however, appear to have limitations in the sense that they do not appear to handle well the part associated with voluntary speed reduction. Hence, the path optimization algorithm that we use here is Dijkstras algorithm. Routing decisions of ships using advanced meteorological modeling and satellite data employing Dijkstras algorithm [3] were investigated by Anel [12] and the US Navy Meteorology and Oceanography (METOC). Bekker and Schmid [13] investigated the use of Dijkstras algorithm and a genetic algorithm to achieve practical strategies and a method in which the two optimization techniques interact to provide a safe route, considering the risk of both sea mines and the environment, making it applicable to sea mine avoidance.

2 Data In the present study, wave model hindcast data are used by assimilating IRS-P4 analyzed wind elds into the WAM

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wave model. IRS-P4 (Oceansat-I) was launched by India in 1999, with two payloads, namely MSMR and ocean color monitor (OCM). The MSMR sensor is congured as an eight-channel radiometer using four frequencies with dual polarization. It has three resolutions, and the geophysical products are also processed for three standard grid sizes (150 9 150, 75 9 75, and 50 9 50 km2) covering the whole globe. There are a total of eight geophysical products, including wind speed (accuracy 2 m/s) without direction [14]. Again, the exact repeat period of the satellite is 2 days. However, both wind speed and direction are essential for sea state prediction. Hence, the MSMR winds over 150 9 150 km2 are blended with medium-range global weather forecasts by the National Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecast (NCMWF) along with the various other available data, including data received through Global Telemetric System (GTS) for the preparation of analyzed elds suitable for sea state nowcasting. IRS-P4 gives scalar winds, which are converted to vector winds by appropriate operators from observation space to analysis space. The operational analysis and forecast system at NCMWF is based on a T80L18 global spectral model and spectral statistical interpolation (SSI) schemes for data analysis. The analysis scheme is mainly based on the Lorenc [15] concept of minimizing a cost function in terms of the deviation of desired analysis from the rst guess eld, which is taken as the 6-h forecast, and the observations, weighted by the inverse of the forecast and observation errors. The detailed methodology for computing vector winds is available in Kamineni et al. [16]. The objective analysis scheme in SSI takes care of generating six-hourly wind elds from 48 h satellite wind data gaps. Atmospheric conditions over the Indian seas (Bay of Bengal and Arabian Sea) are also unique, as the winds over this basin reverse semiannually, blowing from the southwest during the summer monsoon and from the northeast during the winter monsoon. In the absence of any observed data over the oceanic region, the 6-h model forecast (serving as a background eld as a guess) is retained in the analysis. The assimilated products such as the zonal and meridional components of winds at six-hourly intervals are processed and supplied by NCMWF. This wind is known as the IRS-P4 analyzed wind eld, having u- and v-wind components covering the south to north Indian Ocean, being available for sea state forecasting. The same has been assimilated into the third-generation wave model WAM for simulating six-hourly wave parameters. Wind speed and direction for the monsoon month of August are used here for wave model hindcasting. The mean monthly wind elds for the rough weather month of August 2000 are presented in Fig. 1 as a contour map. The contours show the wind speed in m/s, and arrows represent direction. These windwave parameters are used for meteorological navigation.

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-30 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 110 120

Longitude

Fig. 1 Mean monthly IRS-P4 analyzed wind elds for August 2000

3 Methodology The basic principles involved in optimal ship routing are the same as those for minimum ight time of an aircraft ying at xed level [17]. However, the two problems differ primarily in the manner in which the environment impedes the motion of the vehicle. The methodology adopted to carry out this study is described in the following sections. The rst section describes the implementation of the wave model for simulating an irregular seaway, while subsequent sections describe the ship behavior in the seaway and route optimization, respectively. 3.1 Wave modeling The state-of-the-art third-generation WAM wave model (Cycle-4) is used in this study, originally developed by the WAMDI Group [1]. It integrates the basic transport equation without any prior assumptions on the shape of the wave spectrum. WAM requires wind input on the prescribed model grids and computes the evolution of twodimensional wave spectrums for the full set of degrees of freedom [18]. It provides 25 frequencies and 12-directional discretization for evolution of the wave spectrum by solving 1.2 million equations for each grid. The source terms and the propagation are computed with different numerical methods and time steps. The model outputs are signicant wave height, peak and mean wave periods, mean wind-wave directions, swell wave height, swell frequency and direction, frictional wind velocity, waveinduced stress, and the two-dimensional wave spectrum. The model is being updated with new advances and continually validated with long-term measurements from moored buoys and satellite data [19]. In the history of wave modeling, in the early 1960s the rst attempt was made to develop wave models considering the source term as the sum of atmospheric input and white-cap dissipation, known

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as rst-generation wave models. In the late 1970s, secondgeneration wave models were developed, with increased understanding of the physical processes responsible for wind-wave generation, propagation, decay, and nonlinear interaction (JONSWAP) [20]. The present model used in this study is a spectral wave model that takes care of the wind input term and associated spectral change, and the complete spectral energy change due to nonlinear wave wave interaction and dissipation due to white-capping. The sea state parameters are simulated using six-hourly IRS-P4 analyzed wind elds. The mean monthly wave climate for the monsoon month of August 2000 is established using this model. The outputs plotted in Figs. 2 and 3 show the spatial distribution of signicant wave height and peak wave period with mean wave direction, respectively, over the Indian Ocean. The time-series wave parameters of the model have been validated against buoy data by Panigrahi [21] and Panigrahi and Swain [22]. It is reported [5, 23] that, over the Bay of Bengal, the signicant
30

wave height shows root-mean-square deviation of 0.24 m. The average 2D directional wave spectrum simulated at central Bay of Bengal and Arabian Sea for the month of August 2000 are presented in Figs. 4 and 5, respectively. These are absolute representations of waves in an irregular seaway. The multiple peaks of the spectrum show the occurrence of various wave groups having different wave periods. The spectral peaks show the maximum energy levels associated with predominant wave directions. 3.2 Ship behavior in seaway The theory of ship behavior in a seaway is referred to as the sea-keeping characteristics of the vessel. Mostly, this

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Fig. 4 Two-dimensional directional wave spectrum at central Bay of Bengal, August 2000

Longitude

Fig. 2 Mean monthly WAM simulated signicant wave height (m) and mean wave direction () for August 2000

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Fig. 3 Mean monthly WAM simulated peak wave period(s) and mean wave direction for August 2000

Fig. 5 Two-dimensional directional wave spectrum at central Arabian Sea, August 2000

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where RAOx; V; h Rx; V; b=fW : 5

Fig. 6 Denition of ship motions

It is noted that the amplitude of the response R depends on the absolute frequency (x), the ship speed (V), and the relative heading (b = ls - lw), and therefore RAO can be determined over a range of these three variables. Here, ls and lw represent the ship heading angle and wave direction, respectively. In general, most of the ship responses depend linearly on the incident wave amplitude fw . Few response parameters such as added resistance (RAW) that are a second-order function of incident wave amplitude fW are crucial. In this case, the appropriate relation to determine the response spectrum can be modied as SAW xe R RAW SW xe ; f2 W 6

involves ship motion due to waves, which include several factors, viz. (1) loss of speed in a seaway and added resistance, (2) wave loads and structural design, (3) habitation, comfort, and safety, (4) slamming, deck wetness, and propeller emergence, and (5) the establishment of operational limits for mission requirements. All these aspects of sea-keeping or ship behavior in waves result from the six fundamental modes of rigid-body motion (Fig. 6) of the ship in waves, e.g., three linear motions along longitudinal, transverse, and vertical axes dened as surge (xb), sway (yb), and heave (zb), respectively, and the three rotational motions around these axes dened as roll (), pitch (h), and yaw (w). These fundamental motions further set for deriving other useful derived responses. The various responses of the vessel in regular monochromatic waves are represented by corresponding transfer functions, generally termed response amplitude operators (RAO). For an incident wave of amplitude fw and absolute frequency x, the incident wave elevation f is given by f x ; t fx cos k x xt;
! ! !!

where RAW is added resistance in monochromatic waves at the given encountered frequency (i.e., at the given combination of speed, heading, and absolute frequency), and SAW is the added resistance spectrum. The average R (mean) added resistance in an irregular wave eld (i.e., in an incident wave spectrum) is given by twice the area under the spectrum, p " RAW 2 m0 ; m0 Z1
0

SAW xe dxe : R

This differs from the other responses varying linearly with wave amplitude. Statistical quantities such as the average amplitude, signicant amplitude, etc. are proportional to the square root of the area under the corresponding response spectra. Furthermore, a simplied formulation for added resistance suggested by Bhattacharya [2] can be plugged into the calculations, RAW x3 e bz z2 bh h2 ; a a 2g 8

where k is the wavenumber. Any particular response r(t) of the ship will be of the form rt Rcosxe t erf ; 2

where R is the amplitude of the response, erf is the phase angle between the response and the incident encountered wave, and xe is the frequency of encounter, which depends on the ship speed (V), the ship heading (b) with respect to the waves, and the absolute wave frequency (x):   xV xe x 1 cosb : 3 g The response can thus be written as rt RAO fW cosxe t erf ; 4

where za and ha are heave and pitch displacements for corresponding heave bz and pitch ha damping, respectively. Several other simplied relations of varying levels of complexity are available in literature, each producing estimates of added resistance with progressively greater degrees of accuracy. All formulae are based on hydrodynamic characteristics of the hull in the vertical plane (heave and pitch motions, total added mass and damping, sectional added mass and damping, gradient of sectional added mass along length, gradient of vertical relative motions along length, etc.). As can be seen, determination of ship behavior in an irregular wave eld essentially requires evaluation of the ship response in regular monochromatic

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Fig. 7 Commercial navigation route between the two ports (CalcuttaMumbai)

waves (i.e., determination of the fundamental RAOs). This is the most complicated and difcult part of evaluation of sea-keeping characteristics. The RAOs represent characteristics of a given hull, regardless of the prevailing wave condition. For any given hull, a set of RAOs can be precomputed over a range of ship speeds, relative headings, and wave frequencies. Using these as a database, the response in any given sea condition (i.e., wave eld: wave height and wave direction) can be determined fairly by interpolating the RAOs and carrying out spectral calcula" tions. Furthermore, the mean added resistance, RAW "AW V; b; Hs database can be prepared for equal intervals R of V, b, and Hs by adopting a similar interpolation scheme. This database can help to arrive at the added resistance (RAW) corresponding to a given sea state. Adopting the above mathematical formulations, the ships behavior in the seaway is determined for the present study, and a database is generated. A vessel having overall length (LOA) of 60.0 m and beam of 11.0 m is chosen from Clarksons Registrar [24]. The trajectory of the ship, from Calcutta to Mumbai (old name Bombay) and vice versa, is assumed as the normal navigation track (Fig. 7)

for attending the call between the two ports. It is seen from the gure that the commercial navigation route is via Colombo port, covering a distance of 1244 nautical miles from Calcutta to Colombo and 889 nautical miles from Colombo to Mumbai [25]. The optimal back-and-forth route is estimated following the algorithm described in the subsequent section. 3.3 Ship route optimization Route optimization of a ship involves optimization of several factors, viz. (1) minimum transport time linked to speed loss in the seaway, (2) minimum fuel cost linked with added resistance in waves and total distance, (3) minimum structural damage, (4) maintaining minimum motions for specic operations (e.g., minimum relative motion in vertical plane, roll motions, etc.), and (5) xed time of arrival. The various factors discussed above can be related to: (a) involuntary speed reduction due to increased resistance in the seaway and the decrease in propeller efciency in rough weather, and (b) voluntary speed reduction, which is deliberate reduction in speed

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J Mar Sci Technol Fig. 8 Representation of the directed weighted graph (G)
I

w( I , J ) :12
J

11 K

w( I , M ) : 87 w( L , I ) :12
23

43 35

L 10

M 17

by the ships captain to ensure that ship behavior remains within acceptable safety limits, since it is found that in general a reduction in speed improves sea-keeping characteristics. In our implementation, distance between two nodal points in a spatial grid is expressed as a weight function. These weights can be viewed as the objective function, which are obtained by combining weather information (WAM computed wave parameters) along with vessel sea-keeping characteristics. The general framework of Dijkstras algorithm [3] is described here. Considering a weight directed graph (Fig. 8) or digraph (G), where G = (V, E), with a weight function w: E ? R mapping edges to real-valued weights. The weight of path P v0 ; v1 ; v2 ; . . .; vk is the weighted sum of its constituent edges and can be represented by Eq. 9 wP
k X i1

engine power through a set of parameters, all of which are assumed to be known for a given ship). The weights are thus the time taken by the ship to travel between the two considered neighboring nodes in the wave environment. By assigning these as weights wi,j over the network, the path having minimum weight T is determined as the shortest path [26]. . i . i Xh Xh T Li;j Vredi;j or; T Li;j VMi;j ;
ij ij

11 where L (i,j) is the distance between two neighboring nodes i and j, Vredi;j is the (involuntarily) reduced speed of ship between node i and node j due to its added resistance, and VMi;j is the maximum allowable speed between the path connecting nodes (i, j) beyond which a certain response (e.g., slam, acceleration, etc.) exceeds the prescribed limit (RT).

wvi1 ; vi ;

where w is weight, vi is the ith vertex, and vi-1 is the (i - 1)th vertex. Edge weight du; v can be dened as the shortest path weight (w) from u to v, i.e., w(P) = d(u, v) and is given by du; v minfwP : u ! vg 1 if path exist from u to v otherwise 10

4 Results and discussion This paper aims at charting the optimal route from Calcutta port to Mumbai port and vice versa using model simulated wave data derived from remotely sensed winds. The mean monthly wind speed and direction distribution (Fig. 1) for August 2000 could clearly identify regions of highs and lows and the mean wind directions. The satellite observed wind in general shows an average wind velocity in the range 410 m/s prevailing over the Indian seas for SW monsoon month. In particular, closer to the Indian coast, the wind varies between 4 and 6 m/s. Corresponding mean monthly wave height ranges from 1.0 to 3.5 m over the model domain (Fig. 2). The wave height contour of 1.5 m runs closer to the east coast and the 2.0 m contour closer to the west coast of India, whereas waves of order 2.0 and 2.5 m prevail over the central Bay of Bengal and Arabian Sea, respectively. Similarly, the wave period ranges from 6

Adapting this algorithm, a code has been developed. If the start and destination nodes are dened for a given grid with associated weights, the algorithm nds the optimal path joining these two nodes through grid points. For a distance L between two neighboring nodes with corresponding sea-state parameters, the mean value of the added resistance (RA) is determined. This computation requires interpolation of the motion data (RAO) for appropriate speed and ship heading relative to wave direction. The weights can be represented as: w = L/V, where V = P/(Rc ? RA), where Rc is the calm water resistance of the ship (which can be related to the ships

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to 10 s in the model domain (Fig. 3), revealing that the sea state is composed of wind-seas and swells. Furthermore, closer to the coast, the peak wave period varied between 8 and 10 s, which indicates that the sea state is dominated by remotely generated swells as compared with locally generated wind-waves. The mean wave directions mainly follow the mean wind pattern, i.e., predominantly prevailing from the SW, excepting some local variations. The predominant direction of wave approach at each grid point with respect to the ships course determines the irregular seaway, viz. head sea, astern sea or bow sea. Hence, a sample mean monthly 2D directional wave spectrum is presented for deeper section at central Bay of Bengal (Fig. 4) and central Arabian Sea (Fig. 5). Both spectra exhibit similar energy peaks of the order of 0.52.5 m2/Hz in the frequency band 0.30.1 Hz. As the winds blow consistently over longer fetch and duration due to the active southwest monsoon in the open sea, the swell waves were consistently present, excepting periods of very strong winds, generating various wave groups ranging from 3 to 10 s period. Mainly, the mean monthly wind and wave elds are quite promising, and they follow the standard climatic wind and wave variability patterns for Indian seas [27, 28]. Using this sea-state information, rough weather routing is carried out from departure to destination. The shortest path algorithm is utilized to obtain the optimal route between the two national ports of Calcutta and Mumbai (Fig. 7). The results of the optimal ship route between these two locations are presented in Figs. 9 and 10, where the route circumnavigates seven Maritime Provinces of West Bengal, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, and Maharashtra. The optimal path line connecting these two ports passes around the island country of Sri Lanka, covering a distance of 2155.25 nautical miles. The total time taken by the ship from Calcutta to Mumbai and vice versa is 205.17 and 203.60 h, respectively. In addition to sea-keeping characteristics, slam response (=50/h) is considered in case of consideration of voluntary speed reduction. The effect of added resistance is to reduce the speed by the order of a few percentage, and therefore large deviations in paths are not usually obtained unless wave conditions drastically differ between adjacent zones. This algorithm is promising and extensively used in transportation planning.

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Latitude (degree North)

18 15 12 9 6 3 0 -3 60 63 66 69 72

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Fig. 9 Optimum route from Calcutta to Mumbai
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Fig. 10 Optimum route from Mumbai to Calcutta

5 Conclusions The inuence of sea-state dynamics on the safety and economy of a ships route are of considerable concern to the modern shipping industry. The most important environmental factors relating to the safety and performance of a ship on high seas are prevailing ocean surface winds and

waves. In this context, the WAM wave model predicts the synoptic wave eld using IRS-P4 analyzed winds with a higher level of condence. The simulated model outputs are very useful for meteorological navigation and avoidance of heavy weather damage. The formulations of Bhattacharya [2] for estimating ship motion and seakeeping characteristics appear realistic. The results of this study show that the chosen algorithm is capable of simulating the optimal route between given departure and destination nodes reasonably well. The numerical code developed and implemented here differentiates continental boundaries from water, and estimates the minimal routing path, avoiding land barriers. In this paper, the problem of minimal time ship routing is demonstrated using a static mean monthly sea state for one of the rough weather months (August) of the year in Indian seas. The same can

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be implemented more realistically by assimilating satellite wind and wave data at higher spatiotemporal resolution. However, this needs extensive validation with ship log data before it can be made operational. Such a practical solution to the problem of optimal ship routing is very important to shipping communities. Furthermore, operational ship routing services can also be provided in combination with an onboard voyage planning system. This study should also help navigators to track the ship via an optimum route, taking into account safety, minimal time, and probably minimum fuel consumption. It may be concluded that the modern shipping industry will nd this work very useful and that it also has wider scope for use in warship routing.
Acknowledgments The authors are thankful to Head, Department of Ocean Engineering and Naval Architecture, IIT, Kharagpur, India and Director, DHI-NTU Water & Environment Research Centre and Education Hub, Singapore, for extending support and encouragement for this work. This study is a collaboration of Ph.D. works of Dr. Chinmaya P. Padhy and Dr. Jitendra K. Panigrahi under the supervision of Prof. D. Sen and Dr. J. Swain, respectively.

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