Modelling the problem of yard crane deployment for resource-limited container terminal

Abstract

With the bottleneck of container port has moved from the quay side to the yard area, the operational efficiency of yard crane is becoming increasingly significant to the container terminal. This article studies on the modelling of yard crane (YC) deployment for resource-limited container terminal. Firstly, the models for the basic yard crane deployment are proposed, which include the basic network flow model and the basic mathematical model. Secondly, the extended models are formulated, which can be utilised to deal with the deployment of multi-type yard cranes. Finally, numerical experiments are conducted to verify the effectiveness of the proposed models, e.g., functional test, performance analysis and scenario analysis.