Title: Improving crane routes in automated container terminals: a complex network approach

Authors: Iñigo L. Ansorena

Addresses: ETS Ingenieros de Caminos, Canales y Puertos, Technical University of Madrid, Madrid, 28040, Spain

Abstract: The storage yard plays a key role in automated container terminals. This paper aims to shed new light on the planning of yard operations through the use of graph theory. Although complex graphs can be a very useful tool for planning yard operations, previous research has not addressed this issue yet. Given a theoretical representation of the storage yard as a small world model (Kleinberg's model), it is proposed a two-step method to improve crane routes on the yard. In the first step, a cluster detection technique is used to reveal the well-connected groups of nodes (ground slots). In the second step the crucial transition nodes between the groups are determined (bridge nodes). This study suggests that the terminal could gain efficiency in the long term by focusing on groups and bridge nodes.

Keywords: clusters; bridge nodes; Kleinberg model; automated terminals; yard routes; small world; operations control; transferring containers; storage yard; automated terminal; complex graph.

DOI: 10.1504/IJASM.2022.128230

International Journal of Agile Systems and Management, 2022 Vol.15 No.4, pp.367 - 382

Received: 12 Apr 2021
Accepted: 21 Jan 2022

Published online: 12 Jan 2023 *

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