An optimization method for large-scale cable laying out on ships considering cable channel constraints

【 Objective 】 In order to solve the problems of long design time, high difficulty, and heavy labor consumption in ship cable routing design, this study proposes an efficient optimization framework for rapid ship cable routing aiming at the optimization problem of large-scale ship cable lay outing.【 Methods 】 Specifically, this paper first transforms the cable routing optimization problem into a two - layer optimization problem. The upper - layer optimization problem is a permutation optimization problem for optimizing the cable laying sequence, considering the impact of the cable laying sequence on the optimization scheme. The lower-layer optimization problem is a single-source path optimization problem to determine the specific routing scheme for each cable. This study proposes an optimization framework that uses the genetic algorithm for permutation optimization and the A* algorithm for single - source path optimization, and verifies the proposed algorithms through a randomly generated cable routing environment. 【 Results 】 The study finds that the cable routing optimization problem has a multimodal nature. The cable routing sequence has a dual impact on the routing of multiple cables. On the one hand, it affects the number of successfully routed cables, and on the other hand, it affects the total routing cost. Moreover, as the number of successfully routed cables increases, the remaining capacity of the channel decreases, and the search difficulty for subsequent cable laying increases. 【 Conclusions 】 The optimization algorithms used in this paper can effectively increase the number of successfully cable laying out, reduce the total routing cost, and quickly determine the routing path of each cable.