 For the first time in recent history. Russia is hosting an esteemed international conference in the field of stability and safety of ships and ocean vehicles. This is a token of recognition of the contribution made by Russian researchers in this field for the last hundred years. Traditionally. STAB conferences are places for the exchange of information on the most recent results, formulation new ideas and directions of research, as well as a place for discussions of new proposals for stability criteria and standards.
This is why there are well-established sets of sessions like Rules and Criteria. Intact Stability. Damage Stability. Nonlinear Dynamics, etc. The difference between the conferences was mostly on key problems that were discussed within the frames of these sessions. This conference has a large number of papers focused on numerical and IT aspects of stability-related problems. Inevitably, as these problems became complex or diverse, use of new information technologies comes into the focus. These technologies are now considered from a new point of view: not so much as just a more powerful computing tool, but rather focusing on facilitation of the exchange of data and knowledge between researchers.
There is an understanding that these technologies are needed, not because they are convenient, but because new problems cannot be solved without these new technologies. This understanding becomes a factor of progress just by itself. Almost ninety papers were submitted for the conference, and the authors of these papers represent more than twenty countries. All the papers were peer-reviewed. I hope that the hard work of the reviewer's will help the conference be a success. I would also like to acknowledge the great help from the members of the international standing committee, particularly. Dr. Vadim Belenky. Prof. Kostas Spyrou. Prof. Alberto Francescutto and Prof. Luis Peres Rojas.
However, the conference is being held at a time that is not easy at all for the global economy. It makes it even more valuable that the spread of participation covers the entire world: Japan. Korea. Europe. Australia, New Zealand, and the Americas. It shows how important, as an international event...
 Same as with the other STAB conferences, this compilation of files includes all papers presented in the course of the Seventh conference held in Madrid, Spain in 2003. The papers included in this set have been grouped. The first group describes the historical routes of the theory of the vessels' hydrostatic stability; the second group contains papers on the accident investigation and addresses the investigations of two famous accidents, namely sinking of the ro-ro passenger ferry "Express Samina" and capsizing of a fishing vessel "Ryuho Maru No. 5". The water on deck section consists of two articles, first on the nonlinear roll and numerical approach, and second dedicated to the investigation into various effects of the shallow water on deck. The section "extreme weather effects" explains the effects of the green sea loads on general cargo ships, and lashing the trailers on the ro-ro vessels under intensive rolling. The unconventional ships have also been dealt with in one of the chapters providing the latest studies of the dynamic stability of an UWV (underwater vehicle) and damage stability of TLP (tension leg platform) in ice environment. The other sections of the book cover design for safety, damage ship stability, safety of the large passenger vessels, parametric rolling, regulatory aspects etc.
 The first of the numerous papers that have been presented in the course of the Second STAB held in 1982 in Tokyo, Japan, deals with the following aspects related to the capsizing of the hotel platform "Alexander L. Kielland": a short overview of the design features of the Pentagone offshore platform together with the circumstances of the accident, static analysis of the capsizing, theoretical calculations relating to the capsizing after loss of leg D. the calculations are carried out in still water without the effect of anchor forces, wind, waves and current; including the effect of anchor forces and wind over-turning moment.
That study was undertaken by stepwise filling of the deck structure and trunks in legs C and E. Calculations of the stability and floating position in the various phases are made. Study of the survival capabilities of a Pentagone rig after loss of one of the legs with particular emphasis on possible equilibrium by ballast redistribution.
Evaluation of present stability criteria in light of the accident. Note that the special attention was drawn to damage stability criteria. Present survival criteria deal only with "low impact" damage, and the consequences of "higher impact" damage might be very serious for most of the offshore rigs that are in service today...
 The collection of all activities during the STAB 2006 that was held in Rio-de-Janeiro, Brazil, in 2006. It is presented as the small program which requires no installation; it allows to navigate through the structure of the STAB conferences and access all documents.
Among the key points of the subject conference there were IMO and weather criteria, workshop on safety of offshore floating units, naval architecture and stability, probabilistic approaches, fundamental aspects of parametric resonance and parametric resonance in realistic seaway, numerical and physical modeling for parametric resonance, environmental modeling, stability of high speed vehicles and naval vessels, maneuvering in waves, nonlinear dynamics, intact stability and ship motions, damage stability for passenger and naval vessels, ship survivability, risk-based approaches to damage stability, rules and standards, behavior of the damaged vessel and progressive flooding, accidents investigations, stabilizing systems, safety in operations, water on deck etc.
Taking into account the technical freshness and actuality of the materials included into this set of papers, we would definitely recommend it to anyone willing to stay duly updated with the latest technical developments in the field of ship stability.
 The book is containing the most interesting materials - proceedings of the Eleventh STAB. With a history of more than forty years, these conferences and associated workshops on ship stability are the main meeting points for the recognized and world respected maritime industry professionals and researchers interested in the important problems of stability of marine vessels. Subject conferences are based on completely refereed contributions.
Among the declared objectives of the STAB conferences there is promotion of the exchanges of new ideas and successful methodologies that address the stability of the vessels as well as any other marine vehicles, providing today's naval architects, ship stability researchers as well as ship owners, operators and consultants, certifying and inspection authorities with the opportunities to discuss, present and be kept duly updated with the latest developments in the assessment of ship stability as applied to all sizes and types of floating objects, i.e. ships, platforms etc.
This compendium will be of great use to any person interested in the contemporary problems of ship stability; in addition, it shall be considered a very good supplement to the theoretical studies of the future naval architects and shipbuilders.
 The proceedings of the international conference STAB 1997 held in Varna, Bulgaria, and edited by Peter Bogdanov. STAB'97 is a follow-up Conference which continues the trend set by previous Conferences held in Glasgow (1975), Tokyo (1982), Gdansk (1986), Naples (1990) and Melbourne, Florida (1994) Being traditionally engaged with the most contemporary and important problems of stability and safety of ships and ocean vehicles, the STAB Conference is acknowledged as one of the most prestigious international events in the field of Marine Science, recognized not only by scientists, naval architects, shipbuilders and designers but also by officers of all branches of marine administration and control organizations, regulatory agencies, ship owners, marine consultants and operators, etc.
The topics of the Conference can be classified as follows - Theoretical and Experimental Studies on Stability of Ships and Floating Marine Structures; Advances in Experimental Technique for Investigations on Stability; Stability criteria Philosophy and Research, Realistic Stability Criteria; Operational Stability - the Influence of Environment; Damage Stability; Stability of Fishing Vessels; Upgrading of Stability Qualities of Ro-Ro Ships; Stability of Nonconventional Ship Types and Special Crafts; Risk and Reliability Analysis in Stability and Capsizing; Application of Expert Systems and On-board Computers Stability Monitoring and Control...
 Here are some topics covered within this pack containing the most important proceedings and technical papers of the second ISSW held in Osaka, Japan some years ago with the best experts participating. The first session of the document is dedicated to the surf-riding, broaching as well as capsizing of the ships in following and quartering seas, providing some remarks on such phenomenon as broaching, and addressing various geometrical aspects.
The second session deals solely with capsizing of the vessel in following and quartering seas, including research of the parametric resonance of the vessel in astern seas and results of the studies on the transverse ship stability of a HSC (high speed craft). The third session covers the capsizing of the ship in beam seas, including non-linear roll motion of a vessel with water-on-deck in irregular waves.
The three remaining sessions of the document are all related to the damage stability of the vessel and address capsize model experiments with a damaged vessel model, new probabilistic approaches to the stability of the damaged ship and assessment of the survivability, and ship capsize dynamics under condition of the flooded internal spaces including shifting of cargo.
 Though the Robotic Sailing conference held in 2011 was only the fourth in a series of robotic sailing conferences, the organizers of this important event have noticed a significant increase in the number of people working on and interested in the field of robotics sailing. This official publication contains the proceedings of the Fourth conference and was released with the intention to duly summarize the state of the art in this area.
The first introductory part of the volume provides all interested parties with a good review that illustrates the history as well as very latest developments in robotic sailing. It is very important to clearly understand that possessing a reliable and robust boat shall be considered a basic and key requirement - this is what the part two of the book is mainly focusing on. The proposed boat designs are ranging from smaller one-design boat for development of the algorithms to the ships able to sail across the Atlantic Ocean.
Part three of the book discusses some technical aspects of the system design and validation. The other papers that have been included in this part concentrate on algorithmic issues. The remaining parts of the book deal with the approaches applied to collision avoidance, localization and route planning.
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