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Revolutionising Launch Boat Scheduling with Big Data and AI

One of the key challenges in the maritime industry is the scheduling of the launch boat to provide the services for ships in the port. The current scheduling follows the ‘one-trip-per-booking’ practice, which means one launch boat will be assigned to one booking that transports passenger(s) to the specific destination. However, this traditional method does not fully utilise the capacity of the launch boat. The ideal scheduling is to consolidate multiple service bookings into one launch boat which travels to multiple destinations within one trip.

Revolutionising Launch Boat Scheduling with Big Data and AI

(L to R): Back row: Mr Chua Chye Poh, Founder, ShipsFocus & e-Port; Mr Kenneth Lim, Assistant Chief Executive, Maritime & Port Authority of Singapore, Mr Chew Lock Pin, Executive Director, Science and Engineering Research Council, A*STAR; Front row: Mr James Kim, Chief Operating Officer, e-Port; Dr Su Yi, Executive Director, Institute of High Performance Computing, A*STAR

Building on the positive outcomes of the previous research study, IHPC, ShipsFocus, and e-Port have signed a Research Collaboration Agreement on 26 Jun 2024 to enhance the batching and scheduling optimisation software for the e-Port platform and trial with launch boat service providers. The aim is to address the current launch boat operations inefficiency by maximising boat space and optimising boat trips through demand aggregation, thus creating values in fleet assets optimisation, fuel saving, carbon emission mitigation and sea traffic reduction.

The team will develop intelligent models for near real-time batching and scheduling optimisation using big data science, optimisation algorithms, and simulation analytics. In this collaboration, IHPC will create interfaces and modules to aid in booking consolidation and launch boat assignment and scheduling, while ShipsFocus will provide domain expertise and e-Port will manage digital integration, user requirements and feedback. This partnership will facilitate the development, testing, and refinement of the intelligent maritime platform, eLSA.

Learn more about eLSA.