Container Handling In Automated Yard Blocks

The yard block of a container terminal is the central point of synchronisation for asynchronous container flows between deep-sea vessels and transport to the hinterland. The structure of the block stipulates that containers are stacked on top of each other with only the topmost container directly accessible by a yard crane. This book describes a holistic and integrative approach to container handling in yard blocks to optimise productivity by minimising re-handling operations. The results provide insights for academic scholars as well as for experts from practical terminal planning and operations. The approach presented is two-fold: first, a theoretical foundation of the interdependencies in decision-making is established using mathematical programming. Secondly, operations involving uncertain container arrival information are examined on the basis of a simulation with a rigorous experimental design and statistical evaluation. In this context, the book develops container-handling strategies and analyses the impact of a system for vehicle arrival management – the "Terminal Appointment System". The findings presented in this book are the result of a close cooperation with experts at the port of Hamburg and build on previous research.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Computational Logistics, ICCL 2018, held in Vietri sul Mare, Italy, in October 2018. The 32 full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 71 submissions. They are organized in topical sections as follows: maritime shipping and routing, container handling and container terminals, vehicle routing and multi-modal transportation, network design and scheduling, logistics oriented combinatorial optimization.

This thesis deals with storage systems that are organized in last-in-first-out stacks. This approach for storing items is common, for example, in container terminals, and is therefore of great practical interest as well as high relevance in the literature. Furthermore, optimization problems that may arise in this context are presented and addressed by developing novel mathematical model formulations and customized solution methods.

The storage yard is the operational and geographical centre of most seaport container terminals. Therefore, it is of particular importance for the whole terminal system and plays a major role for trade and transport flows. One of the latest trends in container-storage operations is the automated Rail-Mounted-Gantry-Crane system, which offers dense stacking, and offers low labour costs. This book investigates whether the operational performance of container terminals is influenced by the design of these storage systems and to what extent the performance is affected by the terminal's framework conditions, and discusses the strategies applied for container stacking and crane scheduling. A detailed simulation model is presented to compare the performance effects of alternative storage designs, innovative planning strategies, and other influencing factors. The results have useful implications future research, practical terminal planning and optimisation.

This book was conceived as a gathering place of new ideas from academia, industry, research and practice in the fields of robotics, automation and control. The aim of the book was to point out interactions among various fields of interests in spite of diversity and narrow specializations which prevail in the current research. The common denominator of all included chapters appears to be a synergy of various specializations. This synergy yields deeper understanding of the treated problems. Each new approach applied to a particular problem can enrich and inspire improvements of already established approaches to the problem.

Container terminals are constantly being challenged to adjust their throughput capacity to match fluctuating demand. Examining the optimization problems encountered in today’s container terminals, Port Automation and Vehicle Scheduling: Advanced Algorithms for Scheduling Problems of AGVs, Third Edition provides advanced algorithms for handling the scheduling of Automated Guided Vehicles (AGVs) in ports. Building on the earlier editions, previously titled Vehicle Scheduling in Port Automation: Advanced Algorithms for Minimum Cost Flow Problems, this book has undergone extensive revisions and includes two new chapters. New material addresses the solutions to the modeling of decisions in Chapter 3, while in Chapter 11 the authors address an emerging challenge in automated container terminals with integrated management. Key Features: Classifies the optimization problems of the ports into five scheduling decisions. For each decision, it supplies an overview, formulates each of the decisions as constraint satisfaction and optimization problems, and then covers possible solutions, implementation, and performance. Explores in Part One of the book the various optimization problems in modern container terminals, while details in Part Two advanced algorithms for the minimum cost flow (MCF) problem and for the scheduling problem of AGVs in ports. Offers complete package that can help readers address the scheduling problems of AGVs in ports. This is a valuable reference for port authorities and researchers, including specialists and graduate students in operation research. For specialists, it provides novel and efficient algorithms for network flow problems. For students, it supplies the most comprehensive survey of the field along with a rigorous formulation of the problems in port automation.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 20th Australian Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence, AI 2007, held in Gold Coast, Australia, in December 2007.The 58 revised full papers and 40 revised short papers presented together with the extended abstracts of three invited speeches were carefully reviewed and selected from 194 submissions. The papers are organized in topical sections on a broad range of subjects.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the Second International Conference on Computational Logistics, ICCL 2011, held in Hamburg, Germany, in September 2011. The 26 revised full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from numerous submissions. The papers are organized in topical sections on transport services, logistics systems and production, and maritime shipping and container terminals.