Ship Engine Model Selection by Applying Machine Learning Classification Techniques Using Imputation and Dimensionality Reduction

The maritime is facing a gradual proliferation of data, which is frequently coupled with the presence of subpar information that contains missing and duplicate data, erroneous records, and flawed entries as a result of human intervention or a lack of access to sensitive and important collaborative information. Data limitations and restrictions have a crucial impact on inefficient data-driven decisions, leading to decreased productivity, augmented operating expenses, and the consequent substantial decline in a competitive edge. The missing or inadequate presentation of significant information, such as the vessel’s primary engine model, critically affects its capabilities and operating expenses as well as its environmental impact. In this study, a comprehensive study was employed, using and comparing several machine learning classification techniques to classify a ship’s main engine model, along with different imputation methods for handling the missing values and dimensionality reduction methods. The classification is based on the technical and operational characteristics of the vessel, including the physical dimensions, various capacities, speeds and consumption. Briefly, three dimensionality reduction methods (Principal Component Analysis, Uniform Manifold Approximation and Projection, and t-Distributed Stochastic Neighbor Embedding) were considered and combined with a variety of classifiers and the appropriate parameters of the dimensionality reduction methods. According to the classification results, the ExtraTreeClassifier with PCA with 4 components, the ExtraTreeClassifier with t-SNE with perplexity equal to 10 and 3 components, and the same classifier with UMAP with 10 neighbors and 3 components outperformed the rest of the combinations. This classification could provide significant information for shipowners to enhance the vessel’s operation by optimizing it.