Weather Routing System Architecture Using Onboard Data Collection and Route Optimisation

This paper describes the architecture of a weather routing system consisting of two key elements: onboard monitoring and route optimiser sub-systems. The former is responsible for collecting various onboard measurements, such as current ship position or ship motion variables. These data, when gathered and processed, are then used for fine-tuning a ship model. The model, together with weather forecasts, is utilised by a multi-objective route optimiser to estimate forecasted ship responses during the voyage. The route optimiser has been developed in a client-server architecture to reallocate all necessary high-tech resources to the server side and keep the client software as simple and light as possible. The system also includes a module responsible for optimising transmission costs, to reduce onboard transmission during the voyage. The entire solution has been deployed onboard the demonstrator ship ‘Monte da Guia’ and tested during its operations at sea.