Design and Simulation of a Conceptual Automated Yard using New Combination System

Booming the global container trade, scarcity of land at ports in many metropolitan areas has the same difficulties with expanding the terminal area to improve capacity. As a result, alternative solutions, high-density, automated container terminals (ACT) are currently considered to increase the performance of container terminal. In this paper, a concept of new combination system-ACT (NC-ACT) is proposed. The average percentage cost per container and land needed is analyzed, evaluated, and compared with four prior systems. Four prior systems include general ACT (AGV-ACT) using automated guided vehicles (AGVs), linear motor conveyance system (LMCS), overhead grid rail system (GR), and automated storage/retrieval system (AS/RS). NC-ACT is shown that the efficiency is higher, the capacity is higher, unchecked containers are accessed randomly, and it has lower average percentage cost/storage capacity/acre than four prior ACT systems