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

Abstract

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.

Integrated Scheduling of Automatic Guided Vehicles and Automatic Stacking Cranes in Automated Container Terminals Considering Landside Buffer Zone

“…A two-tier planning model with the objective of minimizing the completion time was established by considering AGV path planning, and a two-tier genetic algorithm (GA) based on congestion prevention rules was proposed to solve the model. Yan et al studied the integrated scheduling problem for rail-mounted gantry cranes, internal trucks, and reach stackers (7) an integrated scheduling optimization model for AGVs and ASCs with the goal of reducing the overall energy consumption by considering both equipment operating process and quantity matching (13). For the YC and YT scheduling problems in container terminals, Hsu et al studied four potential hybrid scheduling systems, each with its own heuristic algorithm (14).…”

“…A two-tier planning model with the objective of minimizing the completion time was established by considering AGV path planning, and a two-tier genetic algorithm (GA) based on congestion prevention rules was proposed to solve the model. Yan et al studied the integrated scheduling problem for rail-mounted gantry cranes, internal trucks, and reach stackers ( 7 ). An optimization model with the objective of minimizing the completion time and total waiting time of all equipment was developed by considering the simultaneous loading and unloading process of containers.…”

“…Therefore, the proposed integrated scheduling is NP-hard in a strong sense. In addition, many studies have also identified this as an NP problem ( 2 , 7 , 14 , 17 ).…”

“…For the integrated scheduling problem of container terminals, scholars have developed and improved a variety of algorithms and methods to solve it. Among them, GA and particle swarm optimization algorithm have been widely proved to be effective ( 3 , 6–11 , 13 , 14 , 17 , 20 , 22 ). In the integrated scheduling of ASC and AGV considering the landside buffer, the following must be resolved: the operation interference problem between the twin ASCs, conflicting task order of AGVs executing tasks in the seaside and landside buffer zones, and conflicting operation order of ASCs and AGVs.…”

Joint scheduling of trucks and RMGCs under synchronized loading and unloading mode in sea-rail intermodal container terminals

“…A hybrid heuristic algorithm was used for solving. Yan et al 3 addressed the optimization of coordinated scheduling for multiple equipment types, including RMGCs, container trucks, and reach stackers, within the railway operation area of a port. They established a mixed-integer linear programming problem with the objectives of minimizing equipment completion times and waiting times, under the condition of fixed work zones for RMGCs.…”