Conflict-free container routing in mesh yard layouts

Container terminals play an important role in global cargo transportation and they have become an essential intermodal interface between the sea and the land. In the container terminal, the service area is often arranged into rectangular blocks, which leads to a mesh-like path topology. We present a mathematical model for general container routing in mesh yard layouts. Based on this model, a simple container routing algorithm guaranteeing freedom of conflicts is then presented. The algorithm works by carefully choosing suitable containers’ speeds such that the containers using the same junction will arrive at different points in time, and hence incur no conflicts; meanwhile, high routing performance can be achieved. The task completion time and the requirements on timing control during the container routing are also presented. Numerical results verify that our routing scheme has good performance and is free of conflicts.