Integrated Scheduling of Rail-Mounted Gantry Cranes, Internal Trucks and Reach Stackers in Railway Operation Area of Container Terminal

Author(s):  
Baicheng Yan ◽  
Xiaoning Zhu ◽  
Li Wang ◽  
Yimei Chang

In this paper, the integrated scheduling of handling equipment at the railway handling area in container terminals is studied, where rail-mounted gantry cranes, internal trucks, and reach stackers are deployed. In the course of the handling operation, loading and unloading containers are handled simultaneously. The handling process is first studied and some scheduling schemes are put forward. Based on the analysis, the problem is formulated as a mixed-integer programming model, with the objectives of minimizing the makespan and the total waiting time of all equipment. Then, to solve the problem, a genetic algorithm is employed, where the first available machine rule is applied in the selection of trucks and reach stackers. Sets of numerical experiments are conducted to verify the effect of the proposed algorithm. Based on the results of experiments, some key indicators are calculated and the effects of different equipment configuration schemes are studied.

2013 ◽  
Vol 446-447 ◽  
pp. 1334-1339 ◽  
Author(s):  
Seyed Hamidreza Sadeghian ◽  
Mohd Khairol Anuar Bin Mohd Ariffin ◽  
Say Hong Tang ◽  
Napsiah Binti Ismail

Automation of the processes at the quays of the world's large container ports is one of the answers to the required ever-increasing transshipment volumes within the same timeframe. For such purpose, using new generation of vehicles is unavoidable. One of the automatic vehicles that can be used in container terminals is Automated Lifting Vehicle (ALV). Integrated scheduling of handling equipments with quay cranes can increase the efficiency of automated transport systems in container. In this paper, an integrated scheduling of quay cranes and automated lifting vehicles with limited buffer space is formulated as a mixed integer linear programming model. This model minimizes the makespan of all the loading and unloading tasks for a pre-defined set of cranes in a scheduling problem.


2019 ◽  
Vol 2019 ◽  
pp. 1-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Meisu Zhong ◽  
Yongsheng Yang ◽  
Yamin Zhou ◽  
Octavian Postolache

With the development of automated container terminals (ACTs), reducing the loading and unloading time of operation and improving the working efficiency and service level have become the key point. Taking into account the actual operation mode of loading and unloading in ACTs, a mixed integer programming model is adopted in this study to minimize the loading and unloading time of ships, which can optimize the integrated scheduling of the gantry cranes (QCs), automated guided vehicles (AGVs), and automated rail-mounted gantries (ARMGs) in automated terminals. Various basic metaheuristic and improved hybrid algorithms were developed to optimize the model, proving the effectiveness of the model to obtain an optimized scheduling scheme by numerical experiments and comparing the different performances of algorithms. The results show that the hybrid GA-PSO algorithm with adaptive autotuning approaches by fuzzy control is superior to other algorithms in terms of solution time and quality, which can effectively solve the problem of integrated scheduling of automated container terminals to improve efficiency.


2011 ◽  
Vol 28 (06) ◽  
pp. 803-829 ◽  
Author(s):  
CANRONG ZHANG ◽  
ZHIHAI ZHANG ◽  
LI ZHENG ◽  
LIXIN MIAO

This paper examines the allocation of yard cranes and blocks for yard activities in container terminals. In this paper, the yard cranes are confined to rail mounted gantry cranes (RMGC), which are characterized by the restricted traveling range on a pair of rails. Since RMGCs and yard blocks are tightly bound to each other, when allocating them, we should make sure that the RMGCs allocated for a yard activity are able to together cover the blocks allocated for the corresponding yard activity. In addition, considering that there are four basic activities occurring in the yard which compete with each other for the scarce resources and have different requirements and priorities in the allocation of blocks and yard cranes, we treat them in a single model rather than in multiple independent models as were generally done in literature. A mixed integer programming model is constructed, and an iterative decomposition solution procedure is proposed for the problem. Based on the solution procedure, a decision support system is developed and implemented for a terminal in Tianjin seaport. Using the actual data, the numerical experiments show the effectiveness and efficiency of the decision support system.


2013 ◽  
Vol 380-384 ◽  
pp. 4775-4781
Author(s):  
Ji Feng Qian ◽  
Xiao Ning Zhu ◽  
Zhan Dong Liu

In order to improve the efficiency of the handling operations equipment in container terminal, reduce the waiting time of container ship in Port, this paper researches the integrated scheduling of the different types of handling equipment in container terminal, considers the constraints of different handling equipment impact between each other, build a mixed integer programming model, presents a heuristic algorithm for the of the scheduling problem and gets the approximate solution. The results show that the integrated scheduling can effectively reduce the time of the ship staying in port, and improve the overall operating efficiency of the port.


Author(s):  
Lingxiao Wu ◽  
Shuaian Wang

This paper discusses tactical joint quay crane (QC) and yard crane (YC) deployment in container terminals. The deployments of QCs and YCs are critical for the efficiency of container terminals. Although they are closely intertwined, the deployments of QCs and YCs are usually sequential. This paper proposes a mixed-integer programming model for the joint deployment of QCs and YCs in container terminals. The objective of the model is to minimize the weighted vessel turnaround time and the weighted delayed workload for external truck service in yard blocks, both of great importance for a container terminal but rarely considered together in the literature. This paper proves that the studied problem is NP-hard in the strong sense. Case studies demonstrate that the proposed model can obtain better solutions than the sequential method. This paper also investigates the most effective combinations of QCs and YCs for a container terminal at various demand levels.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (5) ◽  
pp. 527
Author(s):  
Armi Kim ◽  
Hyun-Ji Park ◽  
Jin-Hyoung Park ◽  
Sung-Won Cho

The rapid increase in international trade volume has caused frequent fluctuation of the vessels’ arrival time in container terminals. In order to solve this problem, this study proposes a methodology for rescheduling berth and quay cranes caused by updated information on the arrival time of vessels. A mixed-integer linear programming model was formulated for the berth allocation and crane assignment problem, and we solved the problem using a rolling-horizon approach. Numerical experiments were conducted under three scenarios with empirical data from a container terminal located in Busan, Korea. The experiments revealed that the proposed model reduces penalty costs and overall delayed departure time compared to the results of the terminal planner.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 1190
Author(s):  
Gang Ren ◽  
Xiaohan Wang ◽  
Jiaxin Cai ◽  
Shujuan Guo

The integrated allocation and scheduling of handling resources are crucial problems in the railway container terminal (RCT). We investigate the integrated optimization problem for handling resources of the crane area, dual-gantry crane (GC), and internal trucks (ITs). A creative handling scheme is proposed to reduce the long-distance, full-loaded movement of GCs by making use of the advantages of ITs. Based on this scheme, we propose a flexible crossing crane area to balance the workload of dual-GC. Decomposing the integrated problem into four sub-problems, a multi-objective mixed-integer programming model (MIP) is developed. By analyzing the characteristic of the integrated problem, a three-layer hybrid heuristic algorithm (TLHHA) incorporating heuristic rule (HR), elite co-evolution genetic algorithm (ECEGA), greedy rule (GR), and simulated annealing (SA) is designed for solving the problem. Numerical experiments were conducted to verify the effectiveness of the proposed model and algorithm. The results show that the proposed algorithm has excellent searching ability, and the simultaneous optimization scheme could ensure the requirements for efficiency, effectiveness, and energy-saving, as well as the balance rate of dual-GC.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 ◽  
pp. 1-11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cheng Luo ◽  
Hongying Fei ◽  
Dana Sailike ◽  
Tingyi Xu ◽  
Fuzhi Huang

“Double-Line Ship Mooring” (DLSM) mode has been applied as an initiative operation mode for solving berth allocation problems (BAP) in certain giant container terminals in China. In this study, a continuous berth scheduling problem with the DLSM model is illustrated and solved with exact and heuristic methods with an objective to minimize the total operation cost, including both the additional transportation cost for vessels not located at their minimum-cost berthing position and the penalties for vessels not being able to leave as planned. First of all, this problem is formulated as a mixed-integer programming model and solved by the CPLEX solver for small-size instances. Afterwards, a particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm is developed to obtain good quality solutions within reasonable execution time for large-scale problems. Experimental results show that DLSM mode can not only greatly reduce the total operation cost but also significantly improve the efficiency of berth scheduling in comparison with the widely used single-line ship mooring (SLSM) mode. The comparison made between the results obtained by the proposed PSO algorithm and that obtained by the CPLEX solver for both small-size and large-scale instances are also quite encouraging. To sum up, this study can not only validate the effectiveness of DLSM mode for heavy-loaded ports but also provide a powerful decision support tool for the port operators to make good quality berth schedules with the DLSM mode.


Author(s):  
Rui Yang ◽  
◽  
Junqing Sun

With the increasing awareness of environmental protection, all walks of life a are paying more and more attention to the carbon dioxide emissions brought by their own industries. For the container terminal, a large proportion of carbon emissions come from the fuel consumption of vessels. In this paper, the consideration of carbon emissions is added to the original berth quay crane joint scheduling problem, and the constraints such as vessel preference for berths and quay crane interference are added. A dual-objective nonlinear mixed integer programming model is established to minimize carbon emissions and minimize costs. The model is solved by the Non-Dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm with Elite Strategy, and the optimal scheduling scheme is obtained. Finally, the calculation examples are verified to prove the effectiveness and practicability of the model and algorithm.


Author(s):  
Yi Liu ◽  
Sabina Shahbazzade ◽  
Jian Wang

In order to improve the efficiency of container terminals, eliminate the empty quay cranes movements, the simultaneous loading and unloading operations in same ship-bay is advanced. The AFSA-GA algorithm is proposed to solve the mixed integer programming model of the dual-cycle operation, which take advantage of the strong local search ability of GA and the global optimum search ability of AFSA. The experiment shows that AFSA-GA algorithm can improve the operation efficiency of quay crane significantly.


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