Ports automation: making order out of data chaos

Edition 51 - Customs & Security

Marine and intermodal terminals around the world are seeking automated container handling solutions at an increased rate. There is no shortage of automated equipment solutions – from quayside gantry cranes to container yard rail-mounted gantry cranes, shuttle carriers, automated guided vehicles and more. The individual system solutions for terminal operations are embedded with complex logic ensuring optimization of equipment usage, yard space, vessel productivity, gate productivity and rail productivity all in the safest manner.

Many terminals are now in the process of introducing advanced and innovative technology to optimize their physical operations. Greenfield terminals especially are tendering this to reduce operational costs and provide an increased level of service to its customers. Typically, the focus is on proven technology for OCR, RFID, and positioning and introduction of touch screen-equipped pedestals at truck lanes. However, there is a big challenge for all IT departments: how to design a solid manageable solution, integrated with the Terminal Operating System (TOS).

Rising to the challenge

HTS originally provided OCR systems for gate, rail and crane operations, including a standard interface for data and images. However, as terminals are not only integrating OCR (which can be linked to a TOS directly), HTS noticed the introduction of other subsystems parallel to OCR and decided that there was a need for a middleware software system that could deal with all these subsystems at once. Therefore HTS, along with collaborator company IT Partner, created the Global Control System (GCS) to fulfill the data fusion requirements in container terminal automation. GCS is a software layer that is designed to operate as middleware between the various subsystems and a (terminal) host system.

Every subsystem has a specific task, such as capturing OCR, handling Card Access Control, reading RFID tags, handling I/O signals and so on. In the end the Host System, normally a TOS, controls the flow of the area in which the subsystems operate. The Host System does not control the subsystems directly (its core function is to control the logistic operation), but it uses GCS to get input from and/or send output to the subsystems using a single channel to GCS only. Where a TOS has normally a single type of connectivity to external systems, GCS is the multiconnector that deals with all the specific interface technologies of the subsystem vendors. GCS has a dedicated software module for every subsystem, which converts from subsystem format to its own database-driven messaging structure. Another dedicated module, the Message Handler, controls the process flow. With GCS you can automate Gate operations, with step-bystep control of the entire truck flow, from Pre-Gate to Gate Out.

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