A New Mathematical Model for RoRo Ship Problem with Considering Draft Limits

Nowadays, maritime transportation has been known as the backbone of global commerce, and it has benefitted from the contributions of many OR researchers. In recent years there has been an increasing focus on short-sea shipping, particularly on freight transported on Roll-On Roll-Off (RORO) vessels. One of these new research areas is stowage planning: cargo arrangement into the ship. Though RORO stowage resamples the well-researched container stowage planning problem, unique planning elements such as loading paths for wheeled cargo make this problem academically intriguing. Recent research has either focused on the planning challenges of multi-port planning or on tackling vessel stability constraints. This work integrates both these research paths by studying the RORO stowage planning problem with multiple ports, multiple decks, stability constraints, ballast tanks, and draft limitations. We propose a mathematical model that maximizes the profit of the voyage by reducing the cargo re-handling costs and maximizing shipped cargo. We also introduce the first set of public benchmark instances, including stability data for three dierent ship sizes (small, medium, and large). Preliminary results will be presented alongside the model and detailed benchmark information.