Article ID: | iaor20107542 |
Volume: | 180 |
Issue: | 1 |
Start Page Number: | 63 |
End Page Number: | 103 |
Publication Date: | Nov 2010 |
Journal: | Annals of Operations Research |
Authors: | Lin J, Cheong Y, Tan C, Liu K |
Keywords: | transportation: water |
This paper considers a berth allocation problem (BAP) which requires the determination of exact berthing times and positions of incoming ships in a container port. The problem is solved by optimizing the berth schedule so as to minimize concurrently the three objectives of makespan, waiting time, and degree of deviation from a predetermined priority schedule. These objectives represent the interests of both port and ship operators. Unlike most existing approaches in the literature which are single-objective-based, a multi-objective evolutionary algorithm (MOEA) that incorporates the concept of Pareto optimality is proposed for solving the multi-objective BAP. The MOEA is equipped with three primary features which are specifically designed to target the optimization of the three objectives. The features include a local search heuristic, a hybrid solution decoding scheme, and an optimal berth insertion procedure. The effects that each of these features has on the quality of berth schedules are studied.