November 5, 2009
[B]Seaware AB announces a new major upgrade for its Seaware Routing software, introducing cost‐based ship route optimization with capability of optimizing even short sea passages with high accuracy.[/B]
The Seaware Routing software is designed to facilitate on board weather presentation and ship route planning, and is delivered as part of weather routing solutions from Seaware partners.
The company now claims their software to be the most advanced on the market, delivering true fuel and cost savings potential. The new upgrade is currently being shipped to all existing customers.
Arrive within minutes and save fuel
Seaware Routing version 5 has been developed with special attention to optimization of short sea passages.
During this work, the code for route optimization and performance predictions has been further refined, among other things by inclusion of a ‘virtual rpm regulator’ emulating the real‐world engine control system. The result is very impressive.
“With the new upgrade our software can find the optimum route that will save you fuel and still take you to your destination within minutes from the preferred arrival time”, states Anders Olander, Executive Director of Seaware.
Systematic simulations using the upgraded software indicate great cost savings potential. Especially in complex weather situations the potential is remarkable, in some cases more than 20 percent fuel could have been saved by adopting the proposed route from the Seaware program instead of using the ‘standard route’.
Optimizes routes based on user’s needs
Seaware Routing version 5 features cost‐based route optimization, i.e. the objective during optimization is to minimize the total cost of a specific voyage. By including fuel cost, daily cost for ship and crew, and also costs related to not arriving to the destination in due time, the program can be used to find the optimum route based on the user’s specific needs in different situations:
• Lowest cost route arriving at a fixed time
• Route with lowest fuel cost and emissions
• Fastest route
• Lowest overall cost using user’s cost figures, offset from desired arrival time is allowed
“The ‘Fastest route’ is quite easy to identify, most competing software only supply this optimization alternative. The other priorities require a much more sophisticated or scientific approach”, says Seaware R&D Manager Mikael Palmquist.
What’s the Seaware secret?
A distinctive ‘Seaware feature’ is the use of a physics‐based model for the performance calculations. The company claims that their methodology is superior to the commonly used ‘speed down matrix’ concept found in competing software.
“The speed down matrix concept relies on user observations of ship speed in different weather conditions, and the accuracy of the method itself will not be better than the accuracy of the user data”, Mikael Palmquist continues. “Further, there is no established relation between speed, power and fuel consumption. This means that fuel consumption can only be treated approximately, based on running hours, leaving out the significant effects of increased power requirement and hence fuel consumption in bad weather”.
The Seaware performance model is developed in‐house by Seaware naval architects, and describes the ship’s speed‐power relation both in calm seas but also when the ship is exposed to wind and waves. It takes ship specific data including loading condition as input.
“The Seaware products are quite unique in this aspect”, Anders Olander says. “The advanced performance model constitutes the required foundation of our optimization functionality”.
Extended communication options
Support for MAPI has been introduced with the new upgrade, allowing Seaware Routing to communicate through the standard (default) e‐mail program installed on the local computer as an alternative.
“Using the built‐in POP3/SMTP client is still the recommended choice, being more reliable and straightforward to work with”, says Seaware Product Manager Henrik Rinder.
Version 5 of Seaware Routing also introduces a number of improvements and additions to the graphical user interface to make it even easier to work with.
Source: Seaware