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
T.A. Nooyens (TU Delft - Civil Engineering & Geosciences)
Mark Duinkerken – Mentor (TU Delft - Transport Engineering and Logistics)
Arjan van Binsbergen – Mentor (TU Delft - Transport, Mobility and Logistics)
R Negenborn – Graduation committee member (TU Delft - Transport Engineering and Logistics)
Gijsbert Bast – Mentor (Portwise)
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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.