Port Berth Scheduling Optimization And Simulation Based On Ant Colony Optimization

With the attention of global trade and economics focusing on China, international trade and economics of China has turning into a quick developing period in order to meet the pace and need of global economics. Port is one of the most significant nexus connecting the global and domestic economics. However, along with the high speed of international development of trade and economics, the requirement of the throughput and capacity of operation is becoming even higher. The principal contradiction of port industry is incompatible of throughput capacity and the increasing need to the port which will not only affect the cost of port management and the satisfactory of the customer, but also the competitiveness of the port. In the operation of the port system, berth is one of the most important factors of that related to the efficient of port operation and throughput. Berth scheduling has become an important research recently. The main object of this paper is focused on improving the capacity of berth operation with limited resource, in order to reduce the overall time vessels spent in the port.This paper utilizes the combination of optimized algorithm and simulation model. According to the specialty of port system, analyzes the factors that affect in-port time and imports the Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) to transform the berth scheduling issue into Traveling Salesman Problem (TSP) issue. The objective function is the least in-port time costing of all vessels. At the same time, crane resource is also one influential factor of the in-port time which is also considered in the optimization. The model was established upon all these factors and the most suitable scheduling solution was suggested by the results.The simulation model tool ProModel is used to establish the simulation system of berth system and simulate the whole process of arriving of vessels, dispatching berth and unloading by cranes. Two dispatching models which are first come first service strategy and strategy based on ACO are established to compare the in-port time differences. Verify the solution of berth scheduling optimization is effective and observe the utilization of resource and other sections in the system under these two models in order to be more useful to direct the practical port operation.