Research On The Berth Allocation And Quay Cranes Scheduling Problem In Container Terminals Under Data Uncertainties

Berth and quay cranes are two important scarce resources in container terminal. Berth is one of the main "bottleneck" to shorten the berthing time. Quay cranes is the core of the whole logistics operation. At present, many scholars only research the single scheduling in container terminal operation ignoring the influence of the handing time and waiting due to the assignment of quay cranes. With the continuous development of economy, the integrated berth and quay cranes scheduling problem has been the main trend. The coordination scheduling of berth and quay cranes not only can satisfy real constraints, but also can save cost. Based on the existing problems in the current scheduling, this paper established a deterministic berth-quay cranes joint scheduling model. Considering actual operation, the arrival time of ships, the workload, the failure of terminal equipment, weather, operator proficiency factors changing all can affect the established plan. They may reduce the work efficiency, increase the additional investment costs. Therefore, it is important to propose feasible mathematical model to handle uncertain factors to decrease the adjustment of scheduling. Robust optimization is one important method to handle uncertain problems and it is different from other stochastic programming optimization methods, which need not to know the accurate distribution of the parameters.Considering the arrival time as uncertain factor, this paper proposes an integrated berth and quay crane robust optimization model. The optimal solution is obtained by the brand and bound algorithm. Numerical result shows that the model and algorithm can shorten the berthing time, save the terminal resources and decrease the terminal costs.