The Influence of Intersection Strategies of Autonomous Terminal Tractor-Only Intersections on the Productivity of an RTG-based Container Terminal

A Simulation Case Study at Portwise

Master thesis (2024)

Authors

T.A. Nooyens Civil Engineering & Geosciences

Contributors

M.B. Duinkerken Transport Engineering and Logistics - Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering (mentor)
A.J. van Binsbergen Transport, Mobility and Logistics (mentor)
R.R. Negenborn Transport Engineering and Logistics - Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering (graduation committee member)
Gijsbert Bast (mentor)
Faculty
Civil Engineering & Geosciences
More Info
expand_more

Published Date

09-09-2024

Language

English

Reuse Rights

Other than for strictly personal use, it is not permitted to download, forward or distribute the text or part of it, without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), unless the work is under an open content license such as Creative Commons.

Faculty

Civil Engineering & Geosciences

Abstract

Autonomous terminal tractors (ATTs) are a current development as a driver-less alternative to terminal tractors (TTs). This paper focuses on the integration of these ATTs in a rubbertired gantry (RTG)-based container terminal, and more specifically looking at how strategies for ATT-only intersections could influence the productivity of the terminal. For this study, a discrete-event simulation model of an ATT, ATT-controller and intersection management system (IMS) were designed. Within the IMS, four intersection strategies were developed: One-Vehicle-at-aTime First-Eligible-First-Serve (One-FEFS), Multiple-Vehicles-at-a-Time First-Eligible-First-Serve (Multi-FEFS), Quay-Crane Destination Priority (QC-Prio) and Priority for Delayed ATTs with QC Destination (Delay-Prio). These intersection strategies were tested in a peak-load and off-peak-load scenario, on a model of an RTG-based terminal, with configurations of varying fleet sizes. Here was found that the intersection strategies had a small influence on the QC productivity in the peak-load scenario, and a negligible influence in the off-peak-load scenario. Utilising either the Multi-FEFS or the QC-Prio strategy leaded to the highest terminal performance. In the simulation model, the ATT performed significantly worse than the existing non-autonomous TT, in every configuration.