考虑翻箱的场桥调度和提箱集卡数量的集成优化

在集装箱码头的进口箱堆场中,码头预约机制、待提箱的实时位置和场桥作业调度方案是制约堆场作业效率和堵塞情况的关键。为缓解进口箱堆场的拥塞情况并提高作业效率,在固定的预约时段内,考虑实时压箱量最少的翻箱规则,兼顾场桥间不可跨越和保持安全间距等现实约束,以场桥最长完工时间最小为目标,构建数学优化模型,设计了嵌入修复算子的改进遗传算法用于求解;通过算例实验验证了算法的有效性和方案的优越性,可为堆场实际作业提供决策参考。     

预倒出口箱区的多场桥调度优化

在集装箱出口箱区堆场的实际作业中,常将待提箱提前翻倒至一空闲箱区,使其装船前以船舶配载图的倒序堆垛,以提高装船效率。为提高初始出口箱区的预翻作业效率,针对该箱区的多场桥调度优化问题进行研究。以实施预翻作业的某一出口箱区为研究对象,在船舶配载图已知的前提下,考虑作业场桥间保持安全距离且不可跨越的条件,兼顾满足经验翻箱规则等现实约束,侧重作业过程中实时翻箱,构建了以场桥作业总行走时间最小为优化目标的线性规划模型,并设计了分支定价算法。在算例实验中,通过与非实时预翻箱方案、FCFS方案以及下界进行对比,验证了模型及算法的有效性,可为集装箱码头出口箱堆场的场桥调度提供参考。     

考虑出口箱进出场及预翻箱的箱位分配与场桥调度协同优化

为降低送箱集卡到场的不确定性对出口箱堆存和装船效率的影响,以最小化堆场进出场作业系统总作业时间为上层模型的目标,以最小化同一批入场出口箱的堆存时间下层模型的目标,构建了双层混合整数规划模型为进出场的出口箱分配箱位并优化场桥调度。设计改进的遗传模拟退火算法求解上层模型可得出口箱箱位分配方案,求解下层模型可得预翻箱和场桥调度方案,通过不断平衡上下层最优解使堆场堆存和装船作业效率最优。通过数值实验验证了算法和调度策略有效性,研究结果可丰富集装箱码头运营系统优化理论,为提高出口箱堆场作业效率提供决策参考。     

基于倒箱移动路径的集装箱堆场提箱作业优化模型

集装箱堆场提箱作业优化的目标是通过对倒箱搬运过程的优化使总作业成本最小。本文分析了正面吊设备的提箱作业过程,对作业规则和约束建立数学模型,在分析倒箱移动路径的基础上,提出了提箱作业优化模型。该模型为两层嵌套的组合优化模型,外层子模型针对提箱订单实现倒箱策略优化;内层子模型针对每一步倒箱作业寻找使倒箱作业成本最小的移动路径。提出了求解该模型的算法流程。最后,通过数值算例验证了优化模型的有效性。与传统人工作业方式的比较结果表明:本优化模型能够明显降低提箱作业成本。     

考虑动态加权A星算法的预翻箱作业优化

为改善堆场作业效率，提出考虑堆场翻箱位规则的集装箱预翻箱作业优化模型并使用动态加权A星算法进行求解，进而确定满足作业规则限制的最优移动序列。基于集装箱装船过程的预翻箱作业，将预翻箱作业过程的贝位布局抽象为A星算法的状态节点，以错误堆叠箱和翻箱迭代深度计算总成本函数，引入动态加权因子控制翻箱迭代方向，提出新颖的搜索分支规则选择有效分支进行搜索。通过上海港码头和相关文献的算例进行实验，结果表明，设计的动态加权启发式函数能够有效改善寻优过程中跳出局部最优解的能力，验证了考虑堆场运作规则-翻箱位规则的算法有效性和稳定性。研究成果能够普遍适用于作业工艺和贝位布局不同的集装箱码头预翻箱作业，能够为堆场运作优化提供决策参考。     

考虑码头内外堆场竞争的集装箱堆存定价模型

针对由于集装箱吞吐量增加造成翻箱成本增加与码头堆场拥堵,考虑内外堆场竞争,构建集装箱堆存定价模型,研究内外堆场竞争下的堆存定价决策和货主移箱决策,分析码头堆场操作成本、场外堆场运输成本、货主需求参数和码头堆场收益的内在关系。算例结果表明:一旦过了免费期立即移箱到场外堆场,货主成本最小。随着场外堆场运输成本的增加,码头堆场的堆存定价和箱量增加,提高码头堆场收益。随着码头堆场操作成本降低,码头堆场堆存价格随之下降,但码头堆存箱量增加,提高码头堆场收益。此外降低堆场定价对货主需求的影响参数以及提高运输成本对货主需求的影响系数,有利于提高码头堆场收益。     

基于贪婪禁忌搜索算法的垂岸式堆场出口箱装船翻箱研究

基于垂岸式自动化集装箱码头不同装船周期出口集装箱堆场多贝位混合堆存、场桥大车在贝位间频繁移动取箱装船特点,考虑装船发箱时场桥移动等操作时间及翻箱取箱次数对出口箱装船效率和连续性影响,建立多贝位出口箱装船堆场翻箱模型,提出两阶段贪婪禁忌搜索算法,将翻箱规则嵌入算法中,有效限制算法时间和解空间增长速度。通过算例,将提出的翻箱规则与现有常见翻箱规则进行对比,验证模型及算法的有效性与实用性。结果表明,提出的模型和算法可以在合理的求解时间内输出较优的翻箱方案,减少装船时场桥发箱作业时间,提高装船作业效率。     

基于仿真优化的自动化集装箱码头出口箱箱位分配

在集装箱码头堆场中，出口集装箱的箱位分配直接影响集装箱的装船效率以及船舶的在港停留时间。研究主要探讨自动化集装箱码头出口集装箱的箱位分配问题，并将船舶靠泊随机性和出口集装箱集港顺序综合考虑到整数规划模型中。针对模型的特点，设计了基于仿真优化思想的启发式算法求得集装箱贝位分配量，并提出“长途箱压短途箱”的贝内具体落位策略。多组实验结果表明，提出的基于仿真的遗传算法能够有效解决自动化集装箱码头出口箱的箱位分配问题。通过多组算例对比实验发现贝位平均翻箱次数和箱区间作业不平衡度随集装箱数量增加而增加，且“长途箱压短途箱”堆存策略能有效减少未来取箱的翻箱次数。研究结果为智能港口、全自动化集装箱码头的运营提供了思路和方向，有助于实现集装箱码头各子系统一体化效率的提升。     

考虑充电因素的自动化集装箱码头AGV任务分配模型

自动化集装箱码头中,AGV(自动引导车)负责衔接岸桥和场桥两个装卸作业设备,被认为是影响整体效率的关键环节之一。为刻画AGV充电特征,降低作业成本,提高自动化集装箱码头系统作业可靠性,本文通过时空网络图刻画AGV运输任务和充电过程,以运输成本最小为目标,构建任务分配优化与充电时机选择模型。为求解模型,基于分支定价算法框架设计求解方法,首先通过Dantzing-Wolfe原理将模型分解为基于路径的集合划分主问题和一个存在电量等资源约束的最短路径子问题,其次设计标号修正算法求解。实验结果表明,本文模型算法能够提高模型的求解质量,有效优化AGV作业顺序并选择合适的充电时机,提升AGV任务分配方案的可靠性,并进一步分析了最大电池容量、行驶距离的变化对AGV使用数量、充电次数以及码头作业效率的影响。     

基于矩阵式遗传算法的进出口集装箱堆场箱位分配策略

为提高集装箱码头堆场系统的运作效率,本文针对集装箱码头进出口堆场的空间分配问题,建立了在“作业面”作业模式下以集卡水平运输距离最短为目标,考虑各箱位作业量均衡的集装箱箱位分配模型,对计划时段内的进出口箱箱位分配进行全局优化．采用矩阵式的实数编码方式的遗传算法对模型进行了求解,使用最优解保存策略保证了最终的优化结果．最后通过仿真算例,验证了本文所建立的箱位分配模型对优化堆场空间资源分配,提高进出口箱流转速度的适用性．     

DCA for solving the scheduling of lifting vehicle in an automated port container terminal

The container was introduced as a universal carrier for various goods in the 1960s and soon became a standard worldwide transportation. The competitiveness of a container seaport is marked by different success factors, particularly the time in port for ships. Operational problems of container terminals is divided into several problems, such as assignment of vessels, loading/unloading and storage of the containers, quay cranes scheduling cite, planning yard cranes cite and assignment of storage containers cite. In this work, the study will focus on piloting yard trucks. Two different types of vehicles can be used, namely automated guided vehicles (AGVs) and lifting vehicles (LVs). An AGV receives a container from a quay crane and transports containers over fixed path. LVs are capable of lifting a container from the ground by itself. The model that we consider is formulated as a mixed integer programming problem, and the difficulty arises when the number of binary variables increases. There are a lot of algorithms designed for mixed integer programming problem such as Branch and Bound method, cutting plane algorithm, . . . By using an exact penalty technique we treat this problem as a DC program in the context of continuous optimization. Further, we combine the DCA with the classical Branch and Bound method for finding global solutions.     

Yard crane scheduling in port container terminals

Yard cranes are the most popular container handling equipment for loading containers onto or unloading containers from trucks in container yards of land scarce port container terminals. However, such equipment is bulky, and very often generates bottlenecks in the container flow in a terminal because of their slow operations. Hence, it is essential to develop good yard crane work schedules to ensure a high terminal throughput. This paper studies the problem of scheduling a yard crane to perform a given set of loading/unloading jobs with different ready times. The objective is to minimize the sum of job waiting times. A branch and bound algorithm is proposed to solve the scheduling problem optimally. Efficient and effective algorithms are proposed to find lower bounds and upper bounds. The performance of the proposed branch and bound algorithm is evaluated by a set of test problems generated based on real life data. The results show that the algorithm can find the optimal sequence for most problems of realistic sizes.     

Optimal berth allocation and time-invariant quay crane assignment in container terminals

Due to the dramatic increase in the world’s container traffic, the efficient management of operations in seaport container terminals has become a crucial issue. In this work, we focus on the integrated planning of the following problems faced at container terminals: berth allocation, quay crane assignment (number), and quay crane assignment (specific). First, we formulate a new binary integer linear program for the integrated solution of the berth allocation and quay crane assignment (number) problems called BACAP. Then we extend it by incorporating the quay crane assignment (specific) problem as well, which is named BACASP. Computational experiments performed on problem instances of various sizes indicate that the model for BACAP is very efficient and even large instances up to 60 vessels can be solved to optimality. Unfortunately, this is not the case for BACASP. Therefore, to be able to solve large instances, we present a necessary and sufficient condition for generating an optimal solution of BACASP from an optimal solution of BACAP using a post-processing algorithm. In case this condition is not satisfied, we make use of a cutting plane algorithm which solves BACAP repeatedly by adding cuts generated from the optimal solutions until the aforementioned condition holds. This method proves to be viable and enables us to solve large BACASP instances as well. To the best of our knowledge, these are the largest instances that can be solved to optimality for this difficult problem, which makes our work applicable to realistic problems.     

Storage yard operations in container terminals: Literature overview,trends, and research directions

Inbound and outbound containers are temporarily stored in the storage yard at container terminals. A combination of container demand increase and storage yard capacity scarcity create complex operational challenges for storage yard managers. This paper presents an in-depth overview of storage yard operations, including the material handling equipment used, and highlights current industry trends and developments. A classification scheme for storage yard operations is proposed and used to classify scientific journal papers published between 2004 and 2012. The paper also discusses and challenges the current operational paradigms on storage yard operations. Lastly, the paper identifies new avenues for academic research based on current trends and developments in the container terminal industry.     

Storage space allocation models for inbound containers in an automatic container terminal

This paper studies the problem of improving the operations efficiency for retrieving inbound containers in a modern automatic container terminal. In the terminal, when an external truck arrives to collect a container stored in a specific container block, it waits at one end of the block where an automatic stack crane will retrieve the container and deliver it to the truck. With the aim of reducing the expected external truck waiting time which is determined by how the containers are stored in a block, we propose two correlated approaches for the operations efficiency improvement, (1) by designing an optimized block space allocation to store the inbound containers after they are discharged from vessels, and (2) by conducting overnight re-marshaling processes to re-organize the block space allocation after some containers are retrieved. For the block space allocation problem, we consider three optimization models under different strategies of storing containers, namely, a non-segregation model, a single-period segregation model, and a multiple-period segregation model. Optimal solution methods are proposed for all three models. For the re-marshaling problem with a given time limit, we find that the problem is NP-hard and develop a heuristic algorithm to solve the problem. We then use simulation to validate our models and solution approaches. Simulation results reveal important managerial insights such as the advantage of the multiple-period segregation over the myopic single-period segregation, the possibility of overflow of the segregation model, and the benefit of re-marshaling.     

考虑潮汐影响的离散型泊位和岸桥集成调度

泊位和岸桥是集装箱港口最紧缺的资源,二者的调度问题存在很强的内在关联。针对大型船需乘潮进出港的离散型泊位,为提高集装箱码头运作效率和客户满意度,将泊位分配、岸桥指派和岸桥调度集成为一体。首先,考虑潮汐的影响以及岸桥作业中可动态调度的现实,以计划期内所有抵港船舶的岸桥作业成本和滞期成本之和最少为目标,建立一个混合整数规划模型,然后设计了一个嵌入启发式规则的遗传算法对其进行求解。最后,算例结果中给出了每艘船舶在确切时刻对应的具体岸桥和每个岸桥的动态作业时间窗,并通过与单独优化的方案对比,验证了集成方案的有效性。