Container carriers have slots allocated for loading and unloading in the ports they visit. It is imperative that they respect these slots.

The problem is to plan the trajectory (route and speed) of the ships while respecting these slots and minimizing fuel expenses.

Fuel expenditure is subject to uncertain information such as sea state, wind speeds and directions and those of ocean currents. Other constraints also influence fuel use, in particular regulatory constraints which impose obligatory passage hours at certain times in certain places or the use of a specific fuel type according to the crossed area.

It is necessary to sample a very, very large number of trajectories and dedicated hardware would be a key enabler for higher gains.