The iTerminals innovation project has presented its results on standard digital language for container terminals in real operations.
Main results were released during a virtual conference on 13 December.
The iTerminals4.0 project aimed to develop and test in real operations a standard digital language that facilitates bidirectional communication between port equipment and container terminal operations management systems.
The initiative is led by Fundación Valenciaport and co-financed by the Connecting Europe Facility Programme (CEF) of the European Commission.
This communication language has already been implemented in the terminals run by the CMA CGM-Terminal Link group in Malta, Thessaloniki, Dunkerque, and Montoir, as well as in the terminals of the PSA group in Antwerp, Sines, and Genoa.
The initiative was promoted by the international association of port operators and manufacturers Terminal Industry Committee.
The project partners discussed the creation of the language known as TIC4.0 Semantics and its areas of application at the conference.
The event was divided in three sections, with the first one focusing on how the adoption of digital standards has improved port operations.
This section introduced three application scenarios where IoT devices were mounted on port machinery to record and transmit operational data to BigData management platforms.
It was feasible to identify inefficiencies, such as waiting periods and non-operational times that are typically challenging to recognise using standard methods, through the use of visualisation modules that were particularly built for the project.
The conference’s second session was a round table discussion where participants presented their project-related experiences and lessons learned.
Some of the topics covered were cybersecurity and the quality of the data that is currently accessible.
The conference’s last session was devoted to the application of the digital standard in fields including predictive maintenance, energy conservation, and operational security in port terminals.
