Stacking Algorithms for Automated Container Ports: An Improvement by Direct Stacking

In an automated container port, after a container is transported into the container yard by a rail mounted gantry, the containers are allocated automatically by stacking terminals. A direct stacking mode is put forward in this article to improve the stacking schedule. It is induced to decrease the vertical transportation distance. In fact, the simulation results show that the total transportation distance is dropped too, which means it is far more efficient in cost than traditional modes. On the other hand, the indirect mode is more efficient in space, especially when the number of containers is small.