Modeling and routing problems of automated port using T-TPN and Beam search

Abstract

This paper is about routing problem of Automated Intelligent Vehicles (AIVs) in a port. The objective is to prove the effectiveness of automated system for the transfer of containers in port terminals. The capacity of ships keeps increasing which means a huge volume of transported containers. For competition reasons, the time needed to load/unload ships must be reduced. For that, an automated system becomes a priority in order to increase the productivity and reduce operating costs. This paper is about modeling and scheduling problems to enable the routing of the AIV s. The modeling is done with transition timed Petri nets (T - TPN) that behave under earliest firing policy. The scheduling problem of AIVs is treated using Beam search with the obj ective of finding a control sequence between an initial state and a reference one with minimal time. An example is used to illustrate the approach.