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Title:Hierarchical control of equipment in automated container terminals
Authors:J. Xin, R.R. Negenborn, G. Lodewijks

Conference:4th International Conference on Computational Logistics (ICCL 2013)
Address:Copenhagen, Denmark
Date:September 2013

Abstract:The performance of container terminals needs to be improved to adapt the growth of handled containers and maintain port sustainability. This paper provides a methodology to improve the throughput of the container terminal in an energy efficient way. The behaviors of equipment are modeled as a higher level and a lower level representing discrete-event dynamics and continuous-time dynamics, respectively. These dynamics need to be controlled. At the higher level a minimal makespan problem is solved. For this, the minimal time required for carrying out a task at the lower level is needed. The minimal time for carrying out a task at the lower level by each piece of equipment is obtained by Pontryagin's Minimum Principle. The actual operation time, allowed by the higher level for completing a task by one piece of equipment at the lower level, is determined by the scheduling algorithm at the higher level. Optimal control at the lower level is subsequently proposed to achieve the minimal energy consumption when the operation time allowed is given. The results illustrate how energy-efficient management of equipment for the minimal makespan could be obtained by the proposed methodology.

Reference:Hierarchical control of equipment in automated container terminals. J. Xin, R.R. Negenborn, G. Lodewijks. In Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Computational Logistics (ICCL 2013), Copenhagen, Denmark, pp. 1-17, September 2013.
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