The Design and Implementation of Berth Allocation Management System Based on MAS

Fast turnaround time of vessels and high berth productivity are paramount factors by which a container terminal holds its competitive advantage in the shipping industry. The berth allocation plays an important role in ensuring the terminal to have high berth productivity. Most of the methods employed to tackle berth allocation problem adopt scheduling algorithms based on centralized control. This paper introduces the application of multi-agent system (MAS) technology in berth allocation. The hybrid MAS structure model of berth allocation is presented and contract net protocol is utilized as negotiation strategy to realize interaction and collaboration among agents. This paper also concisely addresses the design and implementation of the MAS based berth allocation management system, which can help the managers of container terminals to deal with the actual operations of berth allocation to enhance terminal productivity. The results show that the distributed control simplifies the complexity of the system, and improves the adaptability, robust and scalability.