Coalition-based Approach for Reach Stackers Routing Problem in Container Terminals

The emergence of containerization had revolutionized the freight maritime transport. The number of the daily handled containers is continuously growing, and port authorities are facing new challenges. Depending on the organization and the level of automation of the container terminal (CT), different vehicles are used to transport the containers, such as Automated Guided Vehicles , Reach Stackers, Straddle Carriers. In our case, we focus on using Reach Stackers. Throughout this paper, we present, formulate and propose a model to solve the Reach Stackers Routing Problem(RSRP) as a Vehicle Routing Problem with Time Windows and Pickup and Delivery (VRPTWPD). First, we draw an analogy between these two problems. Second, we present a state of the art of methods dealing with the vehicle routing problems in CT. Finally, we propose an approximate Multi-Agent method, using coalition formation approach and implementing heuristics. We aim to minimize the service time of containers while respecting time windows and RS capacity constraints. To assess the performance of the proposed model , we exhibit an experimental study based on the Mitrovic-Minic benchmark. The results were very encouraging, showing a high efficiency ratio and a reasonable number of used