Ship route planning in Arctic Ocean based on POLARIS

Abstract

The thawing of sea ice in the North Pole accelerates the opening of new shipping routes through the Arctic Ocean. To identify an economical and safe shipping route in the Arctic Ocean, a risk assessment of the ice regime and an optimization of the route that minimizes the total power consumption should be performed. In this study, a ship route planning system comprising a performance evaluation model and an optimization model is proposed. In the performance evaluation model, the power required for the voyage is estimated. Speed correction is performed using the transit model of the Korea Research Institute of Ships and Ocean Engineering (KRISO) Arctic Safe Routing System (KARS) developed by the KRISO. The risk index outcome, which indicates the severity of the sea ice to the ship, is calculated based on the polar operational limit assessment risk indexing system (POLARIS). Subsequently, the ship route planning problem is formulated as an optimization problem in the optimization model. The heading angle and engine revolutions per minute are both considered to optimize the speed and path simultaneously. The objective function is set as the total power consumption, and the constraints for the arrival time, avoidance of land, criteria for the ice regime, and restriction of the design variables are considered. Then, the optimal route is searched based on the seed genetic algorithm. The seed is generated using the A-star algorithm to obtain a reasonable initial solution and reduce computational time. The suggested system is applied to the Araon, an icebreaker operating in the Arctic Ocean, with various voyage plans. The results show that the proposed system can be applied effectively to ships operating in the Arctic Ocean.