The breakthrough is in the speed at which the automation system can scan a container or trailer in the LSTZ and begin the move, and the percentage of moves that can now be completed automatically, without requiring any assistance from the remote operator.

LSTZ operations are the ‘difficult’ end of an ASC stack. The vehicles that have to be handled (chassis on road trucks) are not uniform, and the location of the container or chassis under the crane varies considerably from move to move, meaning the automation system has to do a lot of work to get the crane in position. In addition, some ASC automation systems require the operator to manage the last few centimetres of every move, which creates a delay waiting for an operator to identify the crane and complete the job.

TMEIC’s Maxview4D system is the latest iteration of an ASC positioning system that can trace its roots back to the first overhead bridge cranes in Singapore. Now incorporating laser (LIDAR) scanners, Maxview4D takes a different and much faster approach to crane positioning and performing the landside moves automatically.

Maxview4D uses six crane-mounted LIDAR scanners to create a 4D model of the container and chassis, or just the truck and chassis for an export move. “As the ASC enters the LSTZ, Maxview4D scans the area underneath the crane, and generates a set of Cartesian coordinates. TMEIC’s unique system filters the point cloud data to provide a clear view of the target, and a precise location of the container, to allow autonomous removal and transport of the container,” TMEIC explained.

Speaking with WorldCargo News Alan Peterson, TMEIC industry segment leader, Crane Systems, said Maxview4D is a step change from the previous Maxview product, while retaining the philosophy of being a completely “cranebased” system – i.e. requiring no civil work or infrastructure on the terminal to implement. Using a computer on the crane, the system is able to perform the six necessary tasks (collect data, create the 3D model, check for exceptions, generate the target position, check for obstructions, and then start the move) very quickly.

When picking up a container or containers off a chassis, Maxview4D can land the spreader automatically 99% of the time – virtually the same as the automation rate the system achieves in the ASC stack itself. Placing a container on a chassis is more difficult, but TMEIC has achieved a 70% automation success rate at one of its customer sites in China. It regards this as a benchmark, as the terminal is a particularly challenging site, with 75 different classes of chassis to manage. TMEIC divided these into “family groups” according to their basic dimensions, and Maxview4D identifies the individual chassis based on unique parameters within the family group.

An important point is that the automation system does not find the twistlocks on the chassis. It processes a 4D image of the chassis to recognise its location and type, and then calculates the position of the twistlock pins.

By the numbers

Increasing automation rate translates into increased productivity in the LSTZ. TMEIC gives an example from a customer site operating 26 ASCs in its LSTZ for 10 hours per day. The terminal was achieving 17 moves per hour, equivalent to 3.53 minutes per move. The time waiting for a remote operator (the ‘hang time’, which can be calculated from the brake lock/unlock sequence) was 33 seconds. Operating at 17 moves an hour, 33 seconds delay per move adds up to 561 seconds per hour, and a total of 93 minutes (or 1.5 hours) per crane in a 10-hour shift.

99% of pickups and a 70% of container landings to be performed automatically, making the combined automation rate for landside operations 84.5%. The hang time average subsequently dropped to 15 seconds, reducing the crane cycle time to 2.9 minutes.

Gaining time

This time is now available to move more containers, potentially increasing crane productivity to 21 moves per hour, and reducing the lost time in the LSTZ of each ASC block from 1.5 hours to 50 minutes.

TMEIC acknowledges that cutting the crane cycle time does not necessarily result in an exactly equivalent increase in overall productivity, as there can be delays in other areas. The cranes might have to wait for trucks, for example. Nevertheless, Peterson says a faster cycle time is hugely significant for overall productivity. If an ASC is capable of 21 moves per hour, instead of 17, that represents 40 extra containers over 10 hours. Multiplied over 26 cranes, and the LSTZ can manage 1,040 extra containers in the same period. Even if only half of that is captured due to delays, that is still a very significant increase in productivity, while, at the same time, reducing emissions.

Maxview4D also speaks to the way terminal operators can leverage the more-controlled environment of an automated terminal to increase the magic number of ‘moves per hour” that is still the yardstick by which automation is ultimately measured. With Maxview4D, the automation system is a platform that can deliver 21 moves per hour in the LSTZ, and the terminal can work on the systems and processes to support that crane cycle capability in a way that is not really possible in a manned environment, where crane cycle time depends, to a large extent, on the skill of the operator.

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This complete item is approximately 1000 words in length, and appeared in the May 2018 issue of WorldCargo News, on page 29. To access this issue download the PDF