Modified Hungarian Algorithm for Real-Time ALV Dispatching Problem in Huge Container Terminals

It is a fundamental decision making process in container terminals to allocate container transporting works among ALVs. Nowadays, container terminals tend to be larger in storage space and more efficient in handling. As a result, estimations of ALV travel times could be inaccurate, the scale of ALV work allocation could be quite large, and a fixed handling sequence could be hardly ensured beforehand. Hence, it is presented a real-time dispatching method, consisting of an allocation model for instantaneous ALV dispatching, and a set of events which trigger a new instantaneous dispatching. A modified Hungarian Algorithm is applied to solve the instantaneous dispatching model, and it is verified that the modified Algorithm outperforms the original one, even CPLEX, in solving these allocation problems.