SHIP ROUTING USING A* ALGORITHM - A BLACK SEA CASE STUDY

The work's opening part presents the Black Sea's oceanographic features and the factors impacting maritime navigation in this basin. Mainly, navigation safety concerns are storms, ice fields during the wintertime, obstacles, and anthropogenic factors like confined and intense naval traffic areas or pipes, cables, and other industrial installations. The loss of lives, economic damage, and harmful repercussion on the marine environment are usually accompanying naval disasters. In this article, the authors set a semi-fictitious scenario where a ship is to pass a sector with wind and waves affecting the ship and the crew. The A* algorithm is requested to find an optimal route between two ports with the lowest cost, reduced air emissions, but the ship's safety and personnel remaining the paramount objective. In the ultimate part of the paper, the authors analyse how this algorithm can enable the shipmaster and the deck department to make the best decision regarding the voyage's economic aspects and, more importantly, to improve the ship crew's safety.