The integrated real-time scheduling for berths and quay cranes

As the disruptions of various uncertainties, the actual arrival times of vessels to be served in container terminals often deviate from the estimated ones. To improve the robustness of the plan for container terminal, an integrated scheduling strategy is proposed through the real-time scheduling of berths and quay cranes during berthing period. The real-time scheduling includes two stages that the as soon as possible strategy and the negotiation mechanism based on contract network protocol are adopted to make full use of berths and quay cranes along the wharf. The simulation shows that the berth plan with real-time scheduling of berths and quay cranes proposed can obviously diminish the effects from uncertainty and improve the stability of system performance.