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Agent based simulation architecture for evaluating operational policies in transshipping containers

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Abstract

An agent based simulator for evaluating operational policies in the transshipment of containers in a container terminal is described. The simulation tool, called SimPort, is a decentralized approach to simulating managers and entities in a container terminal. Real data from two container terminals are used as input for evaluating eight transshipment policies. The policies concern the sequencing of ships, berth allocation, and stacking rule. They are evaluated with respect to a number of aspects, such as, turn-around time for ships and traveled distance of straddle carriers. The simulation results indicate that a good choice in yard stacking and berthing position policies can lead to faster ship turn-around times. For instance, in the terminal studied the Overall-Time-Shortening policy offers fast turn-around times when combined with a Shortest-Job-First sequencing of arriving ships.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Systems and Software Engineering, Blekinge Institute of Technology, Box 214, Karlshamn, Sweden

    Lawrence Henesey & Jan A. Persson

  2. Department of Systems and Software Engineering, Blekinge Institute of Technology, Box 520, Ronneby, Sweden

    Paul Davidsson

Authors
  1. Lawrence Henesey
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  2. Paul Davidsson
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  3. Jan A. Persson
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Correspondence to Paul Davidsson.

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Henesey, L., Davidsson, P. & Persson, J.A. Agent based simulation architecture for evaluating operational policies in transshipping containers. Auton Agent Multi-Agent Syst 18, 220–238 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10458-008-9044-y

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