Perspectives for ports development, based on automated container handling technologies

The development of the trade by sea has led to a tendency to improve the performance of ports by introducing advanced systems for the freight intermodal handling. To improve the productivity of a port terminal, reducing the time and costs of each activity, the use of automated handling units seems very interesting. These means allow to speed up the freight handling operations by eliminating timewasters and increasing safety; they also reduce the necessary number of workers; but they require continuous monitoring and intelligent management by specialized personnel. The use of automation technologies is also viewed positively from an energy and environmental sustainability points of view. In an ideal automated terminal, handling equipment should be able to perform driverless handling operations, remotely controlled by traffic supervisors. Automation requires specific navigation infrastructures; each automated vehicle is subjected to continuous control in real time, thanks to telecommunications network whose brain is located in a Central Control Station. The paper proposes an updated framework of traditional and automated handling units by comparing their characteristics in terms of operating costs, in order to offer decision support and optimize logistic activities in relation to the specific context and thus guarantee competitiveness, economic and environmental sustainability. A container port terminal is proposed as a case study.