Autonomous port vehicles fleet management: analyzing the effect of GNSS limitations

To accommodate the increasing intensity of port operations, the introduction of automated straddle carriers (ASCs) is considered an innovative direction in the management of ports. However, ASCs rely on satellite navigation systems for positioning, which is accompanied by limitations. The purpose of this paper is to present an algorithmic approach to fleet management, routing and collision avoidance and use the algorithm to study the effects of GNSS limitations to its results. The designed algorithm provides information on assignment, routing and speed profiles for the Automated Straddle Carriers with the purpose of avoiding collisions. Five different scenarios were simulated with experimental data. The results indicated that when noise is introduced to more than one places, then more time is necessary to complete the tasks. Finally, differences in the results may appear insignificant, however, in an automated environment they could increase the volatility and create cascading effects that increase the risk.