AMS2 (Anchorage Management and Simulation System) is a comprehensive software tool for monitoring, managing and optimizing anchorage space usage. It enables ports to plan anchorage space requirements and to safeguard the necessary sea space required for anchorage use.
Vessels calling at a port typically include several different kinds of vessels carrying many different kinds of cargo. A large part of the navigable sea space in any port has to be allocated as anchorage space to provide mooring space for those vessels that require to remain at anchor to carry out their operations. With the heavy premiums on space these days, it is essential that port planners optimize this sea space use, while placing due emphasis on the safety factor. AMS2 serves as a very useful planning aid. It has the following modules:
- Vessel Traffic Generation, for realistic vessel arrivals (forecasted or current) in the system.
- Anchorage Dispatching for accurately modeling the use of anchorages for different purposes.
- Vessel Anchoring, for emulating the space allocation decisions by anchoring vessels.
AMS2 is flexible and configurable, allowing users to customize it by plugging in anchorage configuration, traffic information and usage rules. Given a certain area of anchorage space, AMS2 has also shown great utility in efficiently segregating the space for the different vessel types and purposes.