Production of nursery crops in the US is accomplished in containerand field-growing conditions, with propagation and seedling-rearing carried out in greenhouses. Container-grown crops represent 60% of the US market and represent a highly labor-intensive and thus costly segment of ornamental crop production. The USDA, NASA and the ANLA have collaborated to develop an automated in-field container...

Since the introduction of the maritime container in the mid 1950's, liner shipping groups have migrated from inefficient traditional cargo handling techniques to large cellular vessels which can be seen at any of the world's major ports today. The use of the container improved intermodal productivity and allows for shorter point to point transit times. In addition, cargo damage is reduced. On o...

In order to reduce the conflict of yard, vehicles and quay crane in the process of loading container, and upgrade safety of the ship stowage and transport economics, this paper took minimizing reshuffle times in yard and ship, minimizing the ship center of gravity, getting appropriate trim and minimizing the total moving distance of quay crane as optimization objectives to guarantee the balance...

As the flagship of Hutchison Port Holdings (HPH), Hongkong International Terminals (HIT) is the busiest container terminal on the planet. HIT receives over 10,000 trucks and 15 vessels a day, about six million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) a year. HIT makes hundreds of operational decisions a minute. HIT’s terminal management system, the productivity plus program (3P), optimizes resources...

In this paper, we present a mathematical model and formulation to minimize the number of container relocations in storage systems, like container terminals and warehouses. Container relocations are necessary when a container to be retrieved is not at the topmost position in a stack. We consider a dynamic setting, which allows for continual stacking and retrieving of containers, without restrict...

The dramatic increasing of sea-freight container transportations and the developing trends for using containers in the multimodal handling systems through the sea, rail, road and land in nowadays market cause general managers of container terminals to face challenges such as increasing demand, competitive situation, new investments and expansion of new activities and need to use new methods to ...

Original scientific paper The recent global container transport increase amounts to about 8-10% on a yearly basis in the Port of Koper in 2012 it was 570,744 TEU, which brings Koper's increase to 850% over the last 15 years. Despite the global recession, the decline in container transport in 2009 was minimal. A great increase in transport followed in the year 2010 which was partly a consequence...

This paper presents a system architecture which is based on the multi-agent system paradigm for solving complex problems. This architecture is applied to solve the port container terminal management problem, and specifically to solve the automatic container allocation. The multi-agent systems paradigm seems to fit this problem due to its inherent complexity. This work is part of a project for t...

This paper presents a research framework on loading and unloading process for inter terminal transfer (ITT) operation. Container movement in the transport industry depends on the service provided in the terminal. The complexity of the activities in the process could possibly contribute to potential delays occurred. In this paper, Petri Nets (PN) is introduced as new approach in modeling the con...

During decontamination and decommissioning of a hot cell research laboratory located near West Jefferson, Ohio, Battelle Memorial Institute (BMI) is generating remote-handled transuranic waste (RH-TRU) to be certified for permanent disposal at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP). The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) require sites generating TRU was...