The shipping industry handles over 90% of the global trade volume and is responsible for approximately 3% of global CO2 emissions. Meanwhile, trade by the shipping industry is expected to increase by up to 130% by 2050 compared to 2008. At the same time, the goal is to reduce Green House Gas (GHG) emissions from the shipping industry to half of the 2008 level by 2050. In support of this goal, this thesis is concerned with a comprehensive approach for optimizing the ship's operation, i.e., an optimization approach that simultaneously involves route selection, energy management, propeller pitch, and engine control. In addition, this thesis also analyses the application of wind propulsion systems. The optimization of the ship's operation is implemented in the form of Reinforcement Learning (RL) methods. The use of RL-based methods to simultaneously optimize various aspects of the ship's trajectory and controls is a novel approach compared to the current state-of-art and embodies this thesis' inherent innovation. The results specifically highlight the importance of parallelizing route optimization with the optimization of other control aspects. Ultimately, it is found that the solution emanating from a purely RL-based approach can be further enhanced when the optimized route, speed, and power profiles are used to perform individual DP-based optimizations on the energy management in a post-processing step.

This 4-volume set, IFIP AICT 689-692, constitutes the refereed proceedings of the International IFIP WG 5.7 Conference on Advances in Production Management Systems, APMS 2023, held in Trondheim, Norway, during September 17–21, 2023. The 213 full papers presented in these volumes were carefully reviewed and selected from a total of 224 submissions. They were organized in topical sections as follows: Part I : Lean Management in the Industry 4.0 Era; Crossroads and Paradoxes in the Digital Lean Manufacturing World; Digital Transformation Approaches in Production Management; Managing Digitalization of Production Systems; Workforce Evolutionary Pathways in Smart Manufacturing Systems; Next Generation Human-Centered Manufacturing and Logistics Systems for the Operator 5.0; and SME 5.0: Exploring Pathways to the Next Level of Intelligent, Sustainable, and Human-Centered SMEs. Part II : Digitally Enabled and Sustainable Service and Operations Management in PSS Lifecycle; Exploring Digital Servitization in Manufacturing; Everything-as-a-Service (XaaS) Business Models in the Manufacturing Industry; Digital Twin Concepts in Production and Services; Experiential Learning in Engineering Education; Lean in Healthcare; Additive Manufacturing in Operations and Supply Chain Management; and Applications of Artificial Intelligence in Manufacturing. Part III : Towards Next-Generation Production and SCM in Yard and Construction Industries; Transforming Engineer-to-Order Projects, Supply Chains and Ecosystems; Modelling Supply Chain and Production Systems; Advances in Dynamic Scheduling Technologies for Smart Manufacturing; and Smart Production Planning and Control. Part IV : Circular Manufacturing and Industrial Eco-Efficiency; Smart Manufacturing to Support Circular Economy; Product Information Management and Extended Producer Responsibility; Product and Asset Life Cycle Management for Sustainable and Resilient Manufacturing Systems; Sustainable Mass Customization in the Era of Industry 5.0; Food and Bio-Manufacturing; Battery Production Development and Management; Operations and SCM in Energy-Intensive Production for a Sustainable Future; and Resilience Management in Supply Chains.

Advances in Maritime Technology and Engineering comprises a collection of the papers presented at the 7th International Conference on Maritime Technology and Engineering (MARTECH 2024) held in Lisbon, Portugal, on 14-16 May 2024. This Conference has evolved from the series of biannual national conferences in Portugal, which have become an international event, reflecting the internationalization of the maritime sector and its activities. MARTECH 2024 is the seventh of this new series of biannual conferences. This book comprises 142 contributions that were reviewed by an International Scientific Committee. Advances in Maritime Technology and Engineering is dedicated to maritime transportation, ports as well as maritime safety and reliability. It further comprises sections dedicated to ship design, cruise ship design, and to the structural aspects of ship design, such as ultimate strength and composites, subsea structures as pipelines, and to ship building and ship repair. The Proceedings in Marine Technology and Ocean Engineering series is dedicated to the publication of proceedings of peer-reviewed international conferences dealing with various aspects of “Marine Technology and Ocean Engineering”. The series includes the proceedings of the following conferences: the International Maritime Association of the Mediterranean (IMAM) conferences, the Marine Structures (MARSTRUCT) conferences, the Renewable Energies Offshore (RENEW) conferences and the Maritime Technology (MARTECH) conferences. The “Marine Technology and Ocean Engineering” series is also open to new conferences that cover topics on the sustainable exploration of marine resources in various fields, such as maritime transport and ports, usage of the ocean including coastal areas, nautical activities, the exploration and exploitation of mineral resources, the protection of the marine environment and is resources, and risk analysis, safety and reliability. The aim of the series is to stimulate advanced education and training through the wide dissemination of the results of scientific research.

This Conference Proceedings of the National Seminar entitled “Multidisciplinary Research and Practice” compiled by Dr. M. Kanika Priya records various research papers written by eminent scholars, professors and students. The articles range from English literature to Tamil literature, Arts, Humanities, Social Science, Education, Performing Arts, Information and Communication Technology, Engineering, Technology and Science, Medicine and Pharmaceutical Research, Economics, Sociology, Philosophy, Business, Management, Commerce and Accounting, Teacher Education, Higher Education, Primary and Secondary Education, Law, Science (Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Zoology, Botany), Agriculture and Computer Science. Researchers and faculty members from various disciplines have contributed their research papers. This book contains articles in Three languages, namely: English, Tamil and Hindi. As a editor Dr. M. Kanika Priya has taken up the tedious job of checking the validity and correctness of the research work in bringing out this conference proceedings in a beautiful manner. In its present shape and size, this anthology will, hopefully, find a place on the library shelves and enlighten the academics all round the world.

This book offers a comprehensive reference guide to intelligence systems in environmental management. It provides readers with all the necessary tools for solving complex environmental problems, where classical techniques cannot be applied. The respective chapters, written by prominent researchers, explain a wealth of both basic and advanced concepts including ant colony, genetic algorithms, evolutionary algorithms, fuzzy multi-criteria decision making tools, particle swarm optimization, agent-based modelling, artificial neural networks, simulated annealing, Tabu search, fuzzy multi-objective optimization, fuzzy rules, support vector machines, fuzzy cognitive maps, cumulative belief degrees, and many others. To foster a better understanding, all the chapters include relevant numerical examples or case studies. Taken together, they form an excellent reference guide for researchers, lecturers and postgraduate students pursuing research on complex environmental problems. Moreover, by extending all the main aspects of classical environmental solution techniques to its intelligent counterpart, the book presents a dynamic snapshot on the field that is expected to stimulate new directions and stimulate new ideas and developments.

Trends in Maritime Technology and Engineering comprises the papers presented at the 6th International Conference on Maritime Technology and Engineering (MARTECH 2022) that was held in Lisbon, Portugal, from 24-26 May 2022. The Conference has evolved from the series of biennial national conferences in Portugal, which have become an international event, and which reflect the internationalization of the maritime sector and its activities. MARTECH 2022 is the sixth of this new series of biennial conferences. The book covers all aspects of maritime activity, including in Volume 1: Structures, Hydrodynamics, Machinery, Control and Design. In Volume 2: Maritime Transportation and Ports, Maritime Traffic, Safety, Environmental Conditions, Renewable Energy, Oil & Gas, and Fisheries and Aquaculture. Trends in Maritime Technology and Engineering aims at academics and professionals in the above mentioned fields.

This book contains original, peer-reviewed, and selected research papers that were presented at the 2023 International Conference on Marine Equipment & Technology and Sustainable Development, which took place in Beijing, China on April 1st 2023. The papers cover a range of topics, including but not limited to: the vision and goals of building a maritime community with a shared future, marine machinery and transportation, marine ecology, environmental protection and conservation, marine safety, future ships and marine equipment, marine engineering, marine information and technology, maritime policy, and global governance. The papers included in this volume provide the latest findings on methodologies, algorithms, and applications in marine equipment and technology, as well as sustainable development. As a result, this book is an invaluable resource for researchers, engineers, and university students who are interested in these fields.