Research on the Modeling of Tugboat Assignment Problem in Container Terminal

Abstract

Tugboat is one kind of important equipment in container terminal to help ships for docking or leaving the berth. Tugboat assignment operation is one of the most important decision making problem because it has an important effect on the turnaround time of ships. In this paper, a mixed-integer programming model combined with scheduling rule is formulated for the Tugboat Assignment Problem (TAP). Then a solution method is provided to obtain the optimal solution of TAP problem. Finally, numerical experiments are executed to illustrate the utility of the model and to analyze the effects of the number and service capacity of tugboats on the turnaround time of ships.