The Business
Total Terminal International Algeciras S.A.U. (TTI Algeciras) is the second container terminal of the Port of Algeciras Bay, which is located on the Phase A plot of the Isla Verde Exterior expansion area. The terminal consists of a 650-meter-long berth that can accommodate up to 14,000 TEU class vessels, and 16 blocks that run perpendicular to the quay. It is equipped with 8 Quay Cranes, 32 Automated Stacking Cranes and 20 Shuttle Carriers.
The Challenge
The Port of Algeciras received attention due to its geo-political advantages in Asia/Northern Europe trade and North America/Mediterranean trade. As vessels can call additionally without deviation to transport trans-shipment cargo, the port could become the trans-shipment hub for the ports of West Africa and the Mediterranean. Despite these advantages, the terminal of the port had the extra burden to provide high productivity and competitive stevedoring charges to attract the shipping liners. Promoted by Hanjin Shipping, the selection of TTI Algeciras terminal layout and container handling equipment (CHE) was made possible thanks to vastly superior accumulated experience of Hanjin Shipping – TTI Algeciras – and CyberLogitec (CLT) for terminal automation.
Given the situation, the container handling equipment selected are Single trolley ship-to-shore (STS) with twin spreader (Optical Character Recognition (OCR) supported to remove tally operation), with Automated Stacking Crane (ASC) and Straddle Carrier for horizontal transport.
In 2008, the most difficult decision was whether to introduce shuttle carriers. Automated Guided Vehicle (AGV) was excluded because this expensive equipment cannot ensure operation productivity due to its dependency on other container-lifting CHE. Unmanned Shuttle Carriers were excluded as well due to its unproven technology still in its relative infancy and low base of installed sites.
After the decision, the parties worked on the plans to automate the shuttle carrier to be deployed, preparing for future release of fully automated shuttle carriers.
The Solution: Semi-Automated Shuttle Carrier
Because the shuttle carrier has developed as a semi-automated shuttle carrier to take advantage of the technical developments in the future, all related processes should be automated except for driving, picking-up and landing which will be automatically conducted by robotically controlled shuttle carrier.
The OPUS Terminal terminal logistics controller (TLC) module is the core operation module which creates just-in-time job orders by integrating information from all terminal subsystems including workload of CHE. The relevant information for automated process of semi automated shuttle carrier is gathered, monitored and controlled by GCS sub-module which controls information from sensors, RTLS, PDS, and DGPS.
Straddle carrier drivers do not operate anything manually on vehicle mount terminal (VMT), and information needed for the job operation is sent automatically, preventing drivers from making mistakes. CLT managed the integration project in which it integrated TOS with other 3rd party sub systems.
The Benefit
All the job orders for CHE within a terminal are created, monitored, and changed in TLC module provided by OPUS Terminal. Regardless of automatic/manual processing, TLC module controls jobs on the subsystems to secure the optimal performance, allowing the successful completion of one or the least possible number of jobs. Therefore the change for automated CHE operation from manual operation shall be accomplished only by changing the configuration of OPUS Terminal - vastly simplifying the process.
This approach enables the automated CHE suppliers to focus on their core competences, which is the automation, rather than worrying about various terminal operation issues, increasing the possibility of project success.
OPUS Terminal’s TLC module and its component sub-modules for each CHE are provided in open architecture, so that CLT is providing the possibilities to develop advanced functions or apply the modules developed by 3rd party vendors in the future easily, if required.
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