Allocation And Scheduling Optimization Of Yard Crane In Container Yard Based On Truck Appointment Mechanism

Container yard is the unified distribution center of inbound and outbound containers in the terminal.As the bottleneck resource of terminal scheduling system,the scheduling efficiency improvement of yard crane is of great significance to economic benefits and social service satisfaction of container terminal.In truck appoinmtment mechanism,due to traffic congestion and other unpredictable factors,arrival times of external trucks are quite random and construct the uncertain scheduling environment of yard crane.The uncertain arrival time cause uncertain pick-up/delivery sequences,which are the key to resource allocation and job scheduling of yard crane.This paper studies yard crane deployment and scheduling problem based on truck appointment mechanism.Statistical regularity of arrival uncertainty presented in the two level scheduling problems are deeply analysed,and dynamics are fully considered as a core in solving these problems.In the process of consolidation and configuration,the task load undertaken by different blocks dynamically change.Rational deployment of limited yard crane equipments can effectively enhance the yard operation efficiency in peak hours.Integrated optimization on crane deployment and truck appointment mechanism are carried out to improve the operation efficiency of yard crane while balancing the job distribution.We propose a truck appointment mechanism based on the sharing of optimized crane deployment information between truckers and terminal platform.As the methodology support,a simulation model with the core of "residual time matrix" is developed.The optimization of the crane deployment problem is solved by the combination of optimization algorithm and simulation model.Results of numerical experiments show the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed appointment mechanism and optimization algorithm.For the crane scheduling optimization,a reasonable container storage scheme can reduce the reshuffling operations generated in the subsequent shipment.Besides,the relocation optimization of blocked containers in the truck pick-up operations can also significantly improve the operation efficiency of yard crane.Markov Chain(MC)and the proposed "dynamic priority retrieving probability matrix" are used to describe the arrival sequence and integrated in the mathematical models formulated for stockpiling optimization and relocation optimization.Hybrid metaheuristics are developed respectively to solve the dynamic problem.A series of numerical experiments verify the effectiveness and practicability of the proposed model and optimization algorithms.