A Study into Automated Container Terminals: A Literature Review & New ACT Concept Proposal

Globalization has drastically increased the amount of trade between different nations and this has lead to an exponential growth in shipping activities around the world. As a result, many container terminals are struggling to cope with this new surge of containers moving through their yards. Numerous container terminals are looking at the possibility of automating their container terminal so as to dramatically provide their operational efficiency and hence be able to handle higher container traffic at their terminals. There are currently a few automated container terminal designs which have been proposed and implemented in the industry. In this work, a detailed literature review was conducted on current automated container terminals to understand the limitations of current automated container terminal concepts and to better capture the needs and requirements of container terminals around the world. Based on the information gathered as well as from the analysis of each automated container terminal concept, a new automated container terminal termed the Linear Motor Automated Storage and Retrieval System (LM-AS/RS-ACT) was conceptualized.

Andrew Pang, B.Eng, School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Nanyang Technological University