On the optimization of yard crane scheduling in a container terminal based on GATS

Yard crane scheduling is the vital problem affecting the operational efficiency of container yard directly in the container terminal. This paper addresses yard crane scheduling problem. Firstly the mathematical model of yard crane scheduling is presented, which takes loading time, reshuffling time and waiting time of yard cranes into account. Then the hybrid intelligent algorithm GATS, which is combined by genetic algorithm (GA) and tabu search (TS), is applied to solve the problem. The computational experiments show that the algorithm GATS accelerates the speed of evolution process and gets better results than the genetic algorithm. The approach presented in this paper and its results provide references for the optimization of the yard crane scheduling and increasing the operational efficiency of the container yard in container terminals.