Container dispatching and conflict-free yard crane routing in an automated container terminal

摘要

A container terminal usually has the following components: 1. Watershed area where vessels are moored at berth and containers are loaded and unloaded using quay cranes, 2. Landside is the area for hinterland container transportation in trucks and trains, 3. Storage yard near the vessel for temporary storage where containers are handled by yard cranes, 4. Waterside transfer area operated by internal vehicles such as straddle carriers, automated guided vehicles and trucks that are used for transporting containers to the storage area, and 5. Landside transfer area where containers are transferred into trucks or trains. This study focuses on container operations in the storage yard and is a container dispatching and conflict-free crane routing problem. The study concentrates on the European layout that is perpendicular. An import container will be picked up from the vessel in the berth by a quay crane and transported dockside. An internal vehicle transports the container to a specified location decided by a stacking crane where it remains for few days until it is transported by an external vehicle. For an export container, the reverse process takes place. Different crane systems are used in the storage yard. The rail-mounted gantry is one such system that is considered in this study. The study focuses on dual crane configuration in a single yard block. Transportation requests come from the waterside and landside areas and are handled by these cranes. Either the transportation is to the yard or from the yard. For transport into the yard, the storage location is already determined by a stacking algorithm. The outbound request starts at a well-defined position in the storage area either to the water front or to the landside transfer area. The problem modeled here is a crossover crane scheduling problem. (43 refs.)