A Decision Support System for IAV-based Container Port Operations

The IAV (Intelligent Automatic Vehicle) is the next generation of concept vehicle used for transporting containers horizontally in port. It is expected that IAVs could be used as an upgrade of the AGVs, trucks, Reach Stackers (RSs) and Straddle Carrier (SCs) being used in current port operation. Compared to the aforementioned equipments, the IAV has a more advanced mechanical, electrical and control sub-systems. It is expected that IAV-based container movement systems will be more efficient, easier to set up and require less space to operate. However, in order to fully utilize the strength of IAVs in port operation, we need to adapt previous decision making methods in container port operations such as space allocation, vehicle dispatching and routing, traffic control and deployment of cranes. This is because previous decision making methods are mainly designed for AGV, truck and SC and have not considered the special features of IAV and may not be directly applied to the IAV-based port operation. The aim of the paper is to identify these decision-making problems and propose an initial solution to each of them. In the paper, we will firstly give an introduction to the IAV. Then we will give a detailed description on how IAVs will be used in the container terminal. At last, we will go through the decision-making problems in the IAV-based container terminal and propose some heuristic decision-making rules or methods taking the special features of IAVs into consideration. This study is an initial attempt to use IAVs in container port operation and will contribute to the further development of IAVs in container port practice.