
Navy Using New UConn Software to Improve Navigation - sizzle
https://today.uconn.edu/2017/11/navy-using-new-uconn-software-improve-navigation/
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yardie
Sailors (the ones that use wind, not the stinkpot kind) have been doing this
for years. It's called weather routing and I've successully managed to not hit
another vessel or land using OpenCPN (with the weather routing plugin)[0] and
qtvlm[1]. Where I can go and how fast I can get there I believe is far more
complex than Google maps since I have to work with what's above me and avoid
what's below me.

[0] [http://www.opencpn.org](http://www.opencpn.org) [1]
[http://meltemus.com/index.php/en/](http://meltemus.com/index.php/en/)

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aoki
The Navy has been using such routing for decades.[0] Seems like the big win
for Fleet Numerical would be in not having to run the workflow by hand [1]
rather than adding (largely uninterpretable) neural networks to the problem...

[0]
[http://www.oceanweatherservices.com/featured_blog_posts/abou...](http://www.oceanweatherservices.com/featured_blog_posts/about_optimum_ship_routing)

[1]
[http://www.navy.mil/submit/display.asp?story_id=27544](http://www.navy.mil/submit/display.asp?story_id=27544),

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odgie
Sailboat weather-routing that has been fully automated for years. I see
nothing new here apart from some hand wavy neural network stuff.

[https://www.fastseas.com/](https://www.fastseas.com/) is a neat web app that
even has an API. Just set start and finish, hit route and you get an optimized
route for your sailboats characteristics.

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ramzyo
"The tool guarantees safe travel from any point in the ocean, above, on, or
below its surface..."

Expecting a software tool to "guarantee" safe travel seems like having way too
much confidence in that tool.

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Ucant
Uconn Loves tooting its own horn despite its mediocrity. A good litmus test of
the intellectual atmosphere of a university is its student run newspaper.
Uconn's has (at least in the recent past) featured rampant grammatical and
logical reasoning errors and even stories that end abruptly midway through.
For example they will have a story lead on page 1 and you will read it until
it says "see page 4." You go to page 4 and the other half of the story is
nowhere to be found. Maybe Uconn can help keep the Navy ships from crashing
into each other...but such a newspaper does not instil confidence.

