Based on the recent theoretical development for formation control of multiple fully actuated agents with an elliptical shape in Do (2011), this paper develops distributed controllers that force a group of N underactuated ships with limited communication ranges to perform a desired formation, and guarantee no collisions between any ships in the group. The ships are first fitted to elliptical dis...

In this paper we integrate at the tactical level two decision problems arising in container terminals: the berth allocation problem, which consists of assigning and scheduling incoming ships to berthing positions, and the quay crane assignment problem, which assigns to incoming ships a certain QC profile (i.e. number of quay cranes per working shift). We present two formulations: a mixed intege...

This paper outlines the methodological background and presents a summary of the main results of a series of undertaken international, IMO-led studies, on the harmonisation of the new probabilistic, risk-based regulations with the currently in-force regulatory provisions for assessing the damage stability of dry cargo and passenger ships. It reviews the historical development of the new regulati...

In this article, we determined the concentration levels of metals including Zn, Al, Sr, and Co and metalloid of As of ballast water in commercial ships entering Bushehr port, along the Persian Gulf. Ballast water samples were taken from commercial ships entering Bushehr port from 34 ports around the world during 15 February and 25 August 2016. The concentration levels of metals and metalloid we...

The paper applies spectral analysis to the underwater acoustic noise radiated by ships. A frequency band is specified to characterize the sound produced by different platforms. Hence the paper proposes a new technique for feature extraction by applying autocorrelation technique and discrete cosine transform. The features extracted are employed by a recognition engine that uses Gaussian mixture ...

In this paper, to prevent collisions between ships, we introduce the Distributed Stochastic Search Algorithm (DSSA), which allows each ship to change her next-intended course in a stochastic manner immediately after receiving all of the intentions from the neighboring ships. We also suggest a new cost function that considers both safety and efficiency. We empirically show that DSSA requires muc...

Vibration phenomena that might be modelled well using linear vibration theory include small amplitude vibrations of long, slender objects like long bridges, aeroplane wings, and helicopter blades; small rocking motions of ships in calm waters; the simplest whirling motions of flexible shafts, and so on. However, interactions between bridges and foundations, between wings/blades and air, between...

In the Berth Allocation Problem (BAP) the aim is to optimally schedule and assign ships to berthing areas along a quay. The objective is the minimization of the total (weighted) service time for all ships, defined as the time elapsed between the arrival in the harbor and the completion of handling. Two versions of the BAP are considered: the discrete case and the continuous case. The discrete c...

At container terminals, containers are transshipped from one mode of transportation to another. Within a terminal different types of material handling equipment are used to transship containers from ships to barges, trucks and trains and vice versa. Over the past decades, ships have strongly increased in size, up to 8000 TEU (Twenty feet equivalent unit container). In order to use these big shi...

This paper presents an exact algorithm for the Lock Scheduling Problem (LSP) based on a Combinatorial Benders decomposition. LSP consists of three strongly interconnected sub problems: scheduling the lockages, assigning ships to chambers, and positioning the ships inside the chambers. These three sub problems are interpreted resp. as a scheduling, an assignment, and a packing problem. By combin...