A dynamic programming-based slot reservation method for non-clear containers in automated container terminals

Stowage planning is one of the most important stages in management of container terminals and depends the sequence of containers to be loaded on the ship. For non-clear containers, which are absence from the terminal, their slots will be selected manually by stowage planners, making it a time-consuming job. In order to optimize the slot reservation problem of non-clear containers, a mathematical model based on the knapsack problem is constructed. A Stack Selection Algorithm based on dynamic programming is proposed to solve the model. Further case study of Yangshan automatic container terminal demonstrates that the method can solve the non-clear containers reservation problem in a very short time, and the results are better than traditional heuristic approaches.