Development of a 3D dynamic programming method for weather routing

This paper presents a novel forward dynamic programming method for weather routing to minimize ship fuel consumption during a voyage. Compared with the traditional two dimensional dynamic programming (2DDP) methods which only optimize the ship’s heading, while the engine power or propeller rotation speed are set as a constant throughout the voyage, this new method considers both the ship power setting and heading control. A float state technique is used to reduce the iteration on the process of optimization for computing time saving. This new method could lead to a real global-optimal routing in a comparison with a tradition weather routing method which results in a sub-optimal routing.