Investigating the influence of e-navigation and S-100 over the computation of the weather route

Abstract

The weather route presents significant potential in identifying the most efficient route for vessels, enabling the optimisation of distance, time, or fuel consumption. Although there have been notable advancements in most technologies in recent years, weather routing has failed to keep pace with these developments. The purpose of this document is to determine whether a specific IMO’s concept called e-navigation may have an impact on vessel’s route optimisation. Today, mariners are required to integrate heterogeneous data types (hydrographic, weather, oceanographic, etc.) that are transmitted on board via various devices and in diverse formats in order to execute weather routing. When e-navigation becomes operational, relevant marine-related data will be accessible in a standardised format on a unified device. The objective of this work is to examine the potential of S-100 in the context of weather routing and route optimisation for the benefit of navigation. There are two methodologies discussed: manual and automated. A range of S-100-based products will be evaluated in relation to a variety of optimisation algorithms in order to predict whether e-navigation could be advantageous in addressing the weather routing problem. Constraints regarding the implementation of electronic navigation and the mariners’ duties are outlined in the final part of the paper.