Arranging the retrieving sequence and making the operational plans for gantry cranes to enhance port efficiency have become vital issues for the container terminals. In this paper, the problem of retrieving containers from a yard in a given sequence is discussed as an important part of the ship-loading process. This problem is divided into three categories according to its optimization complexity, i.e., the retrieval problem of a crane with a single spreader(ACSS), the retrieval problem of a crane with multiple spreaders(ACMS), and the retrieval problem of multiple cranes with a single spreader(MCSS). Firstly, heuristic algorithms are proposed to develop a retrieving sequence for ACSS to reduce the operational time. Then, optimizing the assignment to multiple spreaders is conducted by exchanging the movements of the obtained retrieving sequence. Finally, the movements are further assigned to two cranes and integrated with the MCSS retrieval problem mentioned above.The numerical experiments show the effectiveness and practicability of the heuristic algorithms.
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