Automated stowage planning for large containerships with improved safety and stability

Stowage planning for container ships is a core activity of shipping lines. As the size of containership increases, generating a stowage plan with good safety and stability for a large containership becomes increasingly difficult. In this paper, we present an automated stowage planning system for large containerships which consists of three modules: the stowage plan generator, the safety and stability adjustment module, and the optimization engine. This paper focuses on the safety and stability adjustment module which resolves the stability issues of a stowage plan by adjusting the distribution of container weights by stowing containers in alternative feasible locations and fine-tuning stability parameters through adjusting the ballast in tanks onboard. Using shipping data for a large 7000 TEUs containership on a multi-port voyage, we demonstrate that our system can generate stowage plans with improved safety and stability compared to those generated by experienced planners.