On the Influence of Structural Complexity on Autonomously Controlled Automobile Terminal Processes

Planning of automobile terminal operations is a complex task, which is highly affected by volatile demand fluctuations and unforeseen dynamic events. Autonomous control concepts already showed promising results regarding the terminals logistics performance. Especially, in highly dynamic and complex settings autonomous control copes better with undesired dynamics than conventional yard planning approaches. In this regard, this paper focuses on the influence of structural complexity on the performance of an autonomously controlled automobile terminal. It addresses the terminals size and the vehicle volume as parameters of structural complexity. By using a discrete event simulation model of a generic terminal scenario, this paper analyses the logistics performance of an autonomous control strategy. It shows that autonomous control performs best in situations with a high degree of structural and dynamic complexity.

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