An approximation algorithm for quay crane scheduling with non-interference constraints in port container terminals

Abstract

The quay crane scheduling problem studied in this paper is to determine a handling sequence of ship bays for quay cranes assigned to a container ship considering the non-crossing constraints between quay cranes. This paper provides a mixed integer programming model for the considered quay crane scheduling problem that is NP-complete in nature. An approximation algorithm is proposed to obtain near optimal solution. Worst-case analysis for the approximation algorithm is performed and computational experiments are conducted to examine the proposed model and solution algorithm. The computational results show that the proposed approximation algorithm is effective and efficient in solving the considered quay crane scheduling problem.