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A GRASP-based metaheuristic for the Berth Allocation Problem and the Quay Crane Assignment Problem by managing vessel cargo holds

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Abstract

Container terminals are open systems that generally serve as a transshipment zone between vessels and land vehicles. These terminals carry out a large number of planning and scheduling tasks. In this paper, we consider the problem of scheduling a number of incoming vessels by assigning a berthing position, a berthing time, and a number of Quay Cranes to each vessel. This problem is known as the Berth Allocation Problem and the Quay Crane Assignment Problem. Holds of vessels are also managed in order to obtain a more realistic approach. Our aim is to minimize the total waiting time elapsed to serve all these vessels. In this paper, we deal with the above problems and propose an innovative metaheuristic approach. The results are compared against other allocation methods.

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Acknowledgements

This work has been partially supported by the research projects TIN2010-20976-C02-01 (Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación, Spain) the fellowship program FPU (AP2010-4405), and also with the collaboration of the maritime container terminal MSC (Mediterranean Shipping Company S.A.).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Instituto de Automática e Informática Industrial, Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV), Camino de vera, s/n, 46022, Valencia, Spain

    Mario Rodriguez-Molins, Miguel A. Salido & Federico Barber

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  1. Mario Rodriguez-Molins
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  2. Miguel A. Salido
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  3. Federico Barber
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Correspondence to Mario Rodriguez-Molins.

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Rodriguez-Molins, M., Salido, M.A. & Barber, F. A GRASP-based metaheuristic for the Berth Allocation Problem and the Quay Crane Assignment Problem by managing vessel cargo holds. Appl Intell 40, 273–290 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10489-013-0462-4

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