Automation of handling and storage of containers at Shahid Rajaee port

Transportation of goods using containers is rapidly growing. New methods for handling, storage and retrieval of the containers more efficiently are continually being developed by major international ports. Design of container cranes and other handling equipment is also under constant development to meet the automation requiremants. This paper reports on a study carried out for the automation of container at shahid rajaee port. Various methods were investigated and an optimum solution is presented for the container yard of this port. Automatic transtainers stack the containers in 6 raw and 4 column. A mathematical algorithm was developed so thet optimum stacking and retrieval of the containers is performed. The complete project is designed to be carrisd out in four phases. In the final phase, automated guided vehicles (AGV) is used to transfer the containers between container cranes and the storage yard. The same units will also move containers between the loading/unloading area at the entrance to the yard and the storage area. Different sections for the refrigerated containers, quarantined goods. matimtenance area, AGV parking and control room was designed in the final layout. It was shown thet the capasity of the storage yard can be considerably increased. Speed of the storage and ertrieval of the containers into and out of the yard has shown to be much higher then the traditional method. for this investigation, various references such as container handling automation conference 2000 and ports 97 conference were studied. The ports of Kawasaki in Japan and Rotterdam in Hilland which have installed outomated container terminals were also thoroghly investigated and their finding was used in this study. This work was carried out at Advence Manufacturing research Center and was financed by the Ports and Shipping Organization of Iran. At present simulation and optimization of the container yard using computer sortware is being carried out and will be published later.