Algorithms Developed by University of Nottingham Ningbo China Help Transform World’s Busiest Port
Summary
This system is the brainchild of UNNC Artificial Intelligence and Optimisation (AIOP) Research Group, led by Professor Ruibin Bai from the School of Computer Science. Responding to the Port’s needs, Professor Bai started the project in 2015 with several other UNNC researchers and identified a bottleneck in truck traffic management, especially crane-truck synchronisation. Although the Port was already equipped with a terminal operating system to generate automated solutions for real time crane-truck matching, results were derived from oversimplified rules based on human experiences, which were not ideal. Built on classic mathematical models with machine learning techniques, the intelligent truck dispatch system uses algorithms that can produce optimised solutions within one second. A project summary report detailed that the idle time for cranes has been reduced by approximately 10%, empty vehicle driving distances shortened by more than 10% and emissions decreased as a result.