Performance Design of Operating Robots in a Seaport Container-Handling System

In order to provide a highly efficient container-handling system in a seaport terminal, for a given constraint, i.e., demand, we take into account the performance of operating robots, such as quay container cranes (QCCs), automated guided vehicles (AGVs), and rubber-tired gantry cranes (RT-GCs) in addition to the number of robots, as design objectives. However, this is a combinatorial design problem. Therefore in this paper, we propose a design methodology with the use of a hybrid design process which had been proposed for designing the number of robots. By using this methodology, we design two objectives, that is, the number of robots and their performance for a given demand. Finally, we present the validity of the proposed methodology by comparing and evaluating construction costs of two systems, which are designed with the used of the proposed design methodology and a design methodology which does not take into account the robots performance. Moreover, we discuss the designed robots performance in terms of the system bottleneck.