Towards AI driven environmental sustainability: an application of automated logistics in container port terminals

ABSTRACT

Artificial intelligence and data analytics capabilities have enabled the introduction of automation, such as robotics and Automated Guided Vehicles (AGVs), across different sectors of the production spectrum which successively has profound implications for operational efficiency and productivity. However, the environmental sustainability implications of such innovations have not been yet extensively addressed in the extant literature. This study evaluates the use of AGVs in container terminals by investigating the environmental sustainability gains that arise from the adoption of artificial intelligence and automation for shoreside operations at freight ports. Through a comprehensive literature review, we reveal this research gap across the use of artificial intelligence and decision support systems, as well as optimisation models. A real-world container terminal is used, as a case study in a simulation environment, on Europe’s fastest-growing container port (Piraeus), to quantify the environmental benefits related to routing scenarios via different types of AGVs. Our study contributes to the cross-section of operations management and artificial intelligence literature by articulating design principles to inform effective digital technology interventions at non-automated port terminals, both at operational and management levels.

KEYWORDS:

• intelligent port logistics
• artificial intelligence
• Automated Guided Vehicles
• container port management
• vehicle routing
• environmental sustainability

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Throughout the manuscript the terms shoreside and landside are used interchangeably to denote the port operations taking place in the land, including loading and unloading of cargo containers among other operations that require the vessel to be docked.

2 AXSMarine Alphaliner Top 100. https://alphaliner.axsmarine.com/PublicTop100/index.php.

3 COSCO Shipping iForex Forum Greece. www.coscoshipping.gr.

4 Piraeus Port Authority. http://www.olp.gr/en/

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Naoum Tsolakis

Dr. Naoum Tsolakis is a Research Associate in Industrial Systems and Network Analysis at the Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge, where he focusses on the design, analysis, and management of multi-level operations in sustainable supply network systems. His main research and practice interests include the areas of simulation modelling and optimisation of end-to-end supply chain operations, enabled by digital technologies, to assess emerging configurational designs for the efficient management of industrial manufacturing networks. Naoum holds a 5-year Engineering Diploma (top graduate for the Academic Year 2005-2006) and a PhD degree in Mechanical Engineering, along with four Masters degrees in the engineering and business management domains.

Dimitris Zissis

Dr. Dimitris Zissis is an Assistant Professor of Operations Management at Norwich Business School, University of East Anglia, and member of the Innovation Technology & Operations Management Group. He holds a Ph.D. in Management Science from Athens University of Economics & Business, an MSc in Statistics & Operations Research, and BSc in Mathematics, both from the University of Athens. He has held research and teaching positions at University of Bath, University of Liverpool, and Cranfield University. His research interests lie primarily in the fields of quantitative modelling of supply chain operations using innovative frameworks informed by game theory as well as in optimisation techniques.

Spiros Papaefthimiou

Dr. Spiros Papaefthimiou is an Associate Professor in the School of Production Engineering and Management at the Technical University of Crete in Greece, and the President of the Hellenic Association for Energy Economics. He received his bachelor diploma in Physics, MSc in Environmental Sciences, and PhD specialising in smart energy saving devices for buildings, all from Department of Physics at the University of Patras. His research interests include various aspects of renewables (assessment and implementation of technologies and especially photovoltaics and solar thermal systems, implementation of national policies related to renewables and financial and social incentive schemes, renewable energy heating and cooling applications, renewable energy auctions and market exchange, Life Cycle Assessment and environmental impacts analysis from large-scale deployment of renewable energy technologies); Sustainability in the energy sector; Energy saving devices; Technologies of ‘smart’ materials for energy related applications; Energy characterisation of building structural elements.

Nikolaos Korfiatis

Dr. Nikolaos Korfiatis is an Associate Professor of Business Analytics at Norwich Business School, University of East Anglia. He holds a PhD in Information Management from Copenhagen Business School as well as an MSc in Engineering from Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) Stockholm. His research interests lie in the fields of analytics of unstructured data, data driven decision making and applications in vertical domains areas such as marketing, electronic commerce, transportation, and operations management. His research has been published in journals and conference proceedings such as such as European Journal of Operational Research, Journal of Business Research, Expert Systems with Applications, Tourism Management, Journal of Travel Research, Annals of Tourism Research, Computers in Human Behaviour, International Journal of Electronic Commerce, Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology, Electronic Commerce Research and Applications, Proceedings of the International Conference of Information Systems (ICIS), European Conference of Information Systems (ECIS), etc.