International Journal of Electrical and Computer Engineering (IJECE) Vol. 13, No. 2, April 2023, pp. 2309~2315 ISSN: 2088-8708, DOI: 10.11591/ijece.v13i2.pp2309-2315  2309 Journal homepage: http://ijece.iaescore.com Ship routing optimization using bacterial foraging optimization algorithm for safety and efficient navigation Phan Van Hung 1 , Dang Quang Viet 2 , Nguyen Minh Duc 3 , Thanh Dat Le 1,4 1 Faculty of Navigation, Vietnam Maritime University, Hai Phong, Vietnam 2 Crew Training Center, Vietnam Maritime University, Hai Phong, Vietnam 3 University Board of Directors, Vietnam Maritime University, Hai Phong, Vietnam 4 Department of Maritime Transportation System, Mokpo National Maritime University, Mokpo-si, South of Korea Article Info ABSTRACT Article history: Received Sep 15, 2021 Revised Sep 26. 2022 Accepted Oct 21, 2022 Efficient operation plays a vital role to develop a sustainable shipping fleet with cost competitive. The requirements for economic efficiency, energy efficiency, reducing emissions, and increasing safety and security lead to an innovative model in the optimal weather routing system. The vessel routing is influenced by the quality of meteorological and oceanographic data such as wind, waves, and currents. In this study, the model optimization of weather routing considers the meteorological and oceanographic information, ship's characteristics combined with an adaptive bacterial foraging optimization algorithm (BFOA) will be introduced and applied to the ship’ navigation at sea. The simulation results will be evaluated the effectiveness and reliability of the model. This model will support ships’ navigation to be safer and more comfortable, operate more efficiently and reduce emissions. Keywords: Adaptive bacterial foraging optimization algorithm Efficient navigation Safety Ship Weather routing optimization This is an open access article under the CC BY-SA license. Corresponding Author: Phan Van Hung Faculty of Navigation, Vietnam Maritime University No. 484 Lach Tray, Le Chan, Hai Phong, Vietnam Email: phanvanhung@vimaru.edu.vn 1. INTRODUCTION Shipping activities play a vital role in the development of the global economy. However, a vessel’s navigation has always been a difficult and complex task. There are many marine traffic accidents that still occur mainly due to human error in information judgment and decision-making in a specific context. In the past, there have been a number of studies that have been carried out on ship routing, concerning the ship's characteristics and the weather forecasts as well as the choice of mathematical model and algorithm. The potential benefits of weather routing in navigation and its optimization are well studied in [1]–[4]. The aim of weather routing services is to support to ship master [5], [6] to reach minimum time. Nowadays, with the legal air emissions from the vessel and the increasing oil price, various optimal voyage is combined with weather routing measures [7]–[9] in order to support making optimum routing and ship’s speed [10], considering the minimum fuel consumption [11], reaching time arrival, and ship’s safety [12]. Therefore, the ship's speed or power performance will operate in different conditions [13]–[15]. The weather routing problem was called by various scientists and shipping companies. There are various algorithms that have been developed can be divided into four categories, including the isochrone method, genetic algorithms, calculus of variation, and dynamic program [3], [11], [16]. The isochrones methods and a modified isochrone [17]–[20] have been widely used by weather routing service providers around the world. The disadvantages of these approaches note the phenomenon that at some point isochrones can currently be stuck at the landmass, resulting from the incapability of creator points for the isochrones. What is more, this method is less or more based on the dynamic programming measure that is unsuitable for the