Analysis and strategy development for the navigation of heterogeneous ship formations

Abstract

With the increasing demand for smart upgrades, cost reduction, and efficiency enhancement in the shipping industry in recent years, it is vital to achieving the maximization of fleet capacity and efficiency with a smaller crew. Recent advances in science and technology have not only made the operation of individual ships possible with fewer people or even autonomously, but applications based on multiship formations have also begun to emerge. Formation navigation of heterogeneous ships is regarded as one of the most promising routes to achieving efficiency goals. Since most of the existing research on ship formation is based on the theoretical analysis of the isomorphic formation, focused on small-scale unmanned boats, it cannot be directly applied in practice because a ship formation will generally be expected to be heterogeneous, with significant differences in characteristic parameters, dynamic features, intelligence levels, and control modes. The main purpose of this study is to facilitate the navigation of heterogeneous ship formations. Application scenarios of heterogeneous ship formations are analyzed, and a formation strategy aimed at improving navigation efficiency, decreasing operating costs, and reducing carbon emissions is proposed.