A hybrid route planning algorithm for ship routing in ice areas

In view of the harsh and complex natural environment in Arctic waters, this paper aims to solve the problem of ship route planning in ice areas. The working space of ships in ice areas is established based on a grid method, and the global route is planned by an improved ant colony algorithm. The nodes of the preprocessed route are regarded as subtargets to be planned, and the final route is established by an improved dynamic window approach. Simulation results indicate that the improved ant colony algorithm can plan a global route in a static environment with fast iteration speeds. The node deletion algorithm can effectively remove redundant nodes, thereby reducing the computational complexity of subsequent algorithms. The improved dynamic window approach can successfully avoid dynamic obstacles in the environment, generating a final route that aligns with the operational performance of ships in ice areas. © 2024 Editorial Board of Journal of Harbin Engineering. All rights reserved.