Grid data extraction algorithm for ship routing

With the aim of extracting environmental data around routes, as the basis of ship routing optimization and other related studies, this paper, taking wind grid data as an example, proposes an algorithm that can effectively extract the grid data around rhumb lines. According to different ship courses, the algorithm calculates the wind grid index values in eight different situations, and a common computational formula is summarised. The wind grids around a ship route can be classified into ‘best-fitting’ grids and ‘additional’ grids, which are stored in such a way that, for example, when the data has a high-spacing resolution, only the ‘best-fitting’ grids around ship routes are extracted. Finally, the algorithm was implemented and simulated with MATLAB programming. As the simulation results indicate, the algorithm designed in this paper achieved wind grid data extraction in different situations and further resolved the extraction problem of meteorological and hydrogeological field grids around ship routes efficiently. Thus, it can provide a great support for optimal ship routing related to meteorological factors.