Satisfying constraints for locating export containers in port container terminals

Abstract

To allocate spaces to outbound containers, the constraint satisfaction technique was applied. Space allocation is pre-assigning spaces for arriving ships so that loading operations can be performed efficiently. The constraints, which are used to maximize the efficiency of yard trucks and transfer cranes, were collected from a real container terminal and formulated in the form of constraint. Numerical experiments were conducted to evaluate the performance of the developed algorithm. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2006.