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Container terminal TechnologyAgent/multi-agent systems have become an important field within artificial intelligence research. They have found a number of applications, including control processes, mobile robots, air-traffic management and intelligent information retrieval. Container terminal management is a very complex system, and traditional solutions decompose the problem into several sub-problems, each representing one particular aspect. While the set of operations to be conducted in the terminal is very extensive, existing approaches share some common features: • the Marine Side Interface focuses on the loading and unloading of containers. Normally two or three gantry cranes (GC) are used to move containers for each ship • the Transfer System transfers containers between the apron and the container storage yard. Yard trucks (YT) perform transports within the terminal. Transtainers are used to pick up or to put down a container on the storage area of the yard. • the Container Storage System allocates and controls containers in the yard. • the Land Side Interface handles interactions with the land transportation modes. System ArchitectureEach ship agent faces a scheduling problem in which a set of resources (the cranes) must be assigned to the different operations (loading/unloading of containers), thereby establishing a resource use time (loading/unloading time). This requires that the various ship agents active at any time must coordinate with each other to minimise clashes between assigned cranes. For any given gantry crane, stevedore agents try to obtain the most appropiate scheduling in order to manage container stowage. The agent must know the gantry crane loading/unloading sequence, which yard trucks are assigned to this crane and the positions of the various containers within the terminal (this information is provided by the relevant service agents). The agent therefore coordinates with active ship agents and service agents, and attempts to minimise both empty movements of the machinery employed and the number of machines necessary for the internal transfer. Each transtainer is modelled as an autonomous agent whose goal is to perform container-stacking operations efficiently. A transtainer agent must minimise the transtainer’s empty movements. To do this, it obtains the most efficient sequence for moving the container to or from its correct position in the yard. Each agent waits for stacking requests from the various service agents, which inform the transtainer agent of the location of containers to be loaded to vessels or external trucks, or where containers being unloaded from vessels or trucks are to be placed. A gate agent controls the arrival or departure of a container by land. The agent manages the assigned terminal gate, informing the corresponding service agent of the arrival of new containers (in order to store them) and of the arrival of trucks (in order to retire containers from the yard). For instance, when a container arrives, the gate agent checks the accuracy of its data, and if the data is correct, asks for a container location from the service agent responsible for the service to which the container is assigned. Once the location is known, this is communicated to the truck, which delivers it to the appropiate stack. A similar process occurs for containers leaving the terminal.  ADD THIS TO YOUR SOCIAL BOOKMARKS
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