Digital Twins Model for Cranes Operating in Container Terminal

The paper presents an Integrated Maintenance Decision Making Model (IDMM) concept for cranes under operation especially into the container type terminals. The target is to improve cranes operational efficiency through minimizing the risk of the Gantry Cranes Inefficiency (GCI) results based on implementation the Digital Twins concept. The proposed model makes a joint transportation process and crane maintenance scheduling, relevant to assure more robust performances in stochastic environments, as well as to assess and optimize performances at different levels, from components and transport device to production systems (container terminal). The crane operation risk is estimated with a sequential Monte Carlo Markov Chain (MCMC) simulation model and the optimization model behind of IDMM is supported through the Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) algorithms. The developed model allows the terminal container operators to obtain a maintenance schedule that minimizes the GCI, as well as establishing the desired level of risk. The paper demonstrates the effectiveness of the proposed maintenance decision making concept model for cranes under operation with use the data coming from of a real container terminal (case study).