An integrated scheduling method for AGV routing in automated container terminals

The simultaneous scheduling of quay cranes (QCs), automated guided vehicles (AGVs), and yard cranes (YCs) in automated container terminals (ACTs) has been a critical problem. This paper proposes an integrated scheduling for handling equipment coordination and AGV routing. With the goal of minimising makespan, we set up a bi-level programming model. To solve the model, we investigate and compare the rolling horizon procedure (RHP) and Congestion Prevention Rule-based Bi-level Genetic Algorithm (CPR-BGA). It is shown that the CPR-BGA algorithm is highly effective for the integrated scheduling in ACTs. We conclude that the CPR-BGA is effective.