A critical literature review on layout designs and handling technology in traditional and automated container terminals

Automated container terminals have gained considerable attention recently due to the advantages of lower emissions, higher efficiency, and lower labour cost. Compared to the high investment cost of building new automated container terminals, it is preferred to perform automation retrofit on traditional terminals. For the automation retrofit on terminals, it is critical to understand the layout and handling technology of both traditional and automated ones, and further the gap between each other. However, there is still a lack of a comprehensive review of the layout and handling technology for both traditional and automated container terminals in the current literature. To fill this gap, this paper firstly reviews the worldwide existing layout designs and handling technology for traditional and automated container terminals. Subsequently, a classification is proposed, based on which the retrofit patterns are able to be identified and shed light on the future container terminal automation process. Moreover, this paper also summarizes the performance evaluation methods for automated container terminals. Finally, the challenges and directions for further research are given.