Application of wave model for weather routing of ships in the North Indian Ocean

Weather routing of ships is used to establish the shortest time route or the most economical route from a departure to arrival point by applying available information of the weather condition viz. wind, wave and current. Information on ship speed loss due to these effects is pre-computed using sea-keeping computing tools, which are then suitably employed in the optimum ship routing algorithm. This developed algorithm was investigated using the wave height information from GEOSAT altimeter records. Dijkstra's path optimization scheme, which employs optimal control theory and dynamic programming technique, is used to obtain reliable optimum route in a given random sea-state.