Adaptive Autotuning Mathematical Approaches for Integrated Optimization of Automated Container Terminal

Meisu Zhong,Octavian Postolache,Yamin Zhou,Yongsheng Yang

doi:10.1155/2019/7641670

Abstract

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.

Highlights

As the global economic growth accelerates, the demand of container transportation expands progressively. e automated terminal plays an important role in the global supply chain
Automated container terminals have many parts, and this paper mainly studies the seaside operation area, the horizontal transport, and the storage yard, which are correlated and constrained mutually. e seaside operation area is equipped with the quay cranes (QCs) for loading and unloading containers; automatic guided vehicles (AGVs) are used in horizontal transportation, which can move containers from the QC to the yard; the storage yard is equipped with automated rail-mounted gantries (ARMGs). e yard has two ARMGs and AGV-mates in front of each block
We considered a number of containers in an interval of 150–1000 with 8–24 AGVs, 2–8 QCs, and 2–8 blocks to perform simulations

Summary

Introduction

As the global economic growth accelerates, the demand of container transportation expands progressively. e automated terminal plays an important role in the global supply chain. Due to the high cost of equipment in automated terminals, it is hard to increase the number of common used equipment to improve the efficiency [3], such as quay cranes (QCs), automatic guided vehicles (AGVs), and yard cranes (YCs). Erefore, the reasonable scheme of integrated scheduling of three kinds of equipment for loading and unloading container operations has become the key to improving efficiency of automated terminals. In Xiamen Port, QCs use double trolley to replace single trolley for operation, AGVs have been used instead of trucks for horizontal transportation, and automated rail-mounted gantries (ARMGs) have almost displaced tyre cranes in yards. E reasonable scheduling scheme can make full use of resources, reduce the berth time of ships and the waiting time of equipment, and improve the efficiency of loading and unloading in ports. In Xiamen Port, QCs use double trolley to replace single trolley for operation, AGVs have been used instead of trucks for horizontal transportation, and automated rail-mounted gantries (ARMGs) have almost displaced tyre cranes in yards. e reasonable scheduling scheme can make full use of resources, reduce the berth time of ships and the waiting time of equipment, and improve the efficiency of loading and unloading in ports. erefore, it is of great significance to study the integrated scheduling of QCs, AGVs, and ARMGs to improve the efficiency and help to save energy in ports

Methods

Results

Conclusion