Safe and efficient autonomous navigation with regards to weather

Safe and efficient navigation of vessels is currently ensured by the vessel's on-board crew. For unmanned vessels, a respective concept is aimed to be developed in the collaborative research project MUNIN. Based on an as-is-process analysis and a comparison of current weather routing systems, this paper presents an approach and architecture to avoid unfavourable weather conditions and optimize route waypoints on such a vessel. Besides weather forecasts great importance is attached to weather sensor data to monitor and predict ship responses. Consequently, the paper will provide an integrated approach on how strategic and operational routing can be automatically connected to achieve safe and efficient navigation.