Systems and methods for generating routes for watercraft

A marine electronic device having one or more processors, the one or more processors being configured to:

• determine, based on received user input and received marine data from one or more marine sensors, a set of condition parameters including at least a first condition parameter and a second condition parameter, wherein each of the condition parameters correspond to desired conditions for a potential navigation path;
• select, based on at least one of a flexibility or a criticality of each condition parameter in the set of condition parameters, at least one condition parameter of the set of condition parameters;
• determine a constraint relaxation to apply to the at least one selected condition parameter, wherein the constraint relaxation increases a range of input values of the at least one selected condition parameter that satisfy the corresponding desired conditions for the potential navigation path;
• apply the constraint relaxation to the at least one selected condition parameter to form a constraint relaxed condition parameter for the at least one selected condition parameter;
• determine a geographic region based on an updated determined set of condition parameters including at least the constraint relaxed condition parameter, wherein each location within the geographic region satisfies the updated determined set of condition parameters;
• determine a navigation path within the geographic region using at least one computer-based path-planning algorithm;
• and
• update, based on changes to at least one of the received user input or the received marine data, the navigation path within the geographic region in accordance with predetermined intervals.

A method for creating a navigation path for a watercraft, the method comprising:

• determining, based on received user input and received marine data from one or more marine sensors, a set of condition parameters including at least a first condition parameter and a second condition parameter, wherein each of the condition parameters correspond to desired conditions for a potential navigation path;
• selecting, based on at least one of a flexibility or a criticality of each condition parameter in the set of condition parameters, at least one condition parameter of the set of condition parameters;
• determining a constraint relaxation to apply to the at least one selected condition parameter, wherein the constraint relaxation increases a range of input values of the at least one selected condition parameter that satisfy the corresponding desired conditions for the potential navigation path;
• applying the constraint relaxation to the at least one selected condition parameter to form a constraint relaxed condition parameter for the at least one selected condition parameter;
• determining a geographic region based on an updated determined set of condition parameters including at least the constraint relaxed condition parameter, wherein each location within the geographic region satisfies the updated determined set of condition parameters;
• determining the navigation path within the geographic region using at least one computer-based path-planning algorithm;
• and
• updating, based on changes to at least one of the received user input or the received marine data, the navigation path within the geographic region in accordance with predetermined intervals.