© Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany 2018
Claudia Linnhoff-Popien, Ralf Schneider and Michael Zaddach (eds.)Digital Marketplaces Unleashedhttps://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-49275-8_38
38. SmartPORT Traffic Hub – The Prospects for an Intermodal Port of the Future
Sebastian Saxe1
(1)Hamburg Port Authority AöR, Hamburg, Germany
Sebastian Saxe
Email: [email protected]
38.1 The Situation and the Challenge Entailed: The Port of Hamburg vis à vis International Competition
The Port of Hamburg is growing, albeit not as fast as predicted just a few years ago. According to an up‐to‐date handling potential analysis by the Institute of Shipping Economics and Logistics (ISL) [1], at the Port of Hamburg growth in container handling is set to jump from 8.9 million TEU (Twenty Foot Equivalent Units = standard container) in 2015 to about 18 million TEU by 2030. In terms of competition, particularly with the ports of Rotterdam and Antwerp, the port planners are faced with a complex problem. Hamburg is both a federal state and a city. As a result, the space available to extend the port is restricted to the south, in other words to the left of the river Elbe by the federal state of Lower Saxony and by Hamburg residential developments on the hillside in the north. Therefore, any growth in capacity has to be achieved from within the existing space.
Two factors come into play. On the one hand the use of the terminals and the traffic infrastructure are to become more efficient.
This is achieved by boosting the capacities of the gantry cranes which load and unload the container ships for example. However, on the other hand, digitisation plays the most crucial role in enhancing the efficiency of the Port of Hamburg as a whole.
How is digital technology used now and what is its potential in the future to improve the efficiency of the Port of Hamburg via smart, digital solutions for intermodal flows of traffic and goods?
Intelligent and increasingly interconnected systems are to be used to monitor, control and consequently improve merchandise logistics and flows of waterborne, road and rail traffic. In the mid‐term autonomous vehicles will also play a role. At the same time, the operation and maintenance of the port infrastructure (roads, rails, bridges, traffic management systems, lighting, locks, dikes etc.) are to become more cost efficient, effective and safer via constant monitoring of all parts of the infrastructure. Monitoring is based on two systems: firstly, a network of sensors which report the current maintenance status to a central control centre of all components fitted with the sensors and secondly, drones which operate both above and below water and transmit photos, videos and measurement results. Finally, the level of sediment deposits in the fairway can be measured and the condition of dikes easily inspected at regular intervals.
38.2 The Digitisation of the Port of Hamburg – A Cornerstone of Strategic Planning
By launching the smartPORT [2] initiative, Hamburg Port Authority (HPA), together with all the other players at the Port of Hamburg, is creating the conditions for improving the efficiency of the port from a commercial and ecological perspective by providing intelligent, digital solutions for the flow of traffic and goods.
38.2.1 Traffic Management
Port traffic on the water, road and rail is already managed and monitored digitally. However, integration of management, monitoring and optimisation procedures to reflect the impact of each of the carriers on one another has not yet taken place; but it is a strategic planning objective.
Status Quo
Water
shipping in the Port of Hamburg is monitored and coordinated in the Vessel Traffic Service Center which was inaugurated in 2014. Data is collated from existing systems and displayed with the help of the Port Monitor control centre software on one large high resolution monitor that can be viewed from all workspaces. The information provided includes nautical details such as charts, current shipping positions and berths, water level data, the heights and widths of bridges, but also dynamic data such as construction sites or scheduled dives. The technical architecture of the Port Monitor allows for mapping of rail and road traffic at a later developmental stage and for supporting monitoring of the port infrastructure, in other words of bridges, locks, tracks, signal boxes etc.
Rails
the port railway has over 300 km of track. Some 200 trains per day leave the port for areas outside Hamburg, which also include eastern, south‐eastern and southern Europe. In other words, 14% of all Germany’s rail freight transport stems from or going towards the Port of Hamburg. This proportion will probably increase substantially because trains will play a significant role in the transportation of tomorrow. The assumption is that if the amount of traffic as a whole doubles, rail traffic will triple.
Currently, trains in the port are connected semi‐automatically. Wagons are pushed by shunting locomotives onto humps and from this point their own weight propels them on to the target track. The points are switched and the speed and very precise braking of the wagons are controlled automatically. The sequence of the wagons and allocation of the right track on the shunting yards in the port are based on loading lists and specified by planners.
Road
the purpose of the EVE system (Effektive Verkehrslageermittlung – effective traffic situation identification) is to control and optimise road traffic. Based on video images of the traffic junctions and data from inductive loops and Bluetooth detectors, it provides an overview of the volume of traffic. The idea behind the Smart Area Parking project already in production is to manage parking space in the port efficiently. It records the number of parking spaces occupied in real time and reports the results to truck drivers and terminal operators.
The overview of the traffic and parking space situation is used in the Port Road Management Center to give road users, terminal operators and the authorities up‐to‐date information on the traffic in the port. The DIVA system (Dynamische Information über das Verkehrsaufkommen – dynamic information on volume of traffic) transmits the information via info panels located in the port area, on the access roads and motorways to the port and via a smartphone app. These options allow drivers to find out and decide for themselves which are the best routes to their destinations, whether it is worth waiting for a traffic jam to subside, or whether it is advisable to choose an alternative route instead.
Port Traffic Center to Control Waterborne, Rail‐ and Road‐Bound Traffic
The technical architecture of the Port Monitor control system has already been primed so that in future all the information on movement and identity of all carriers can be incorporated into one integrated system, in other words rail‐ and road‐bound traffic in the port. The goal is to achieve full traffic management in the Port Traffic Center (PTC) in which movable infrastructure is also to be included in order to guarantee ideal traffic flows in the port.
The PTC will therefore act as a traffic control centre for the whole port. All ships, road‐ and rail‐bound vehicles, points and locks, as well as lift bridges and bascule bridges, will then be displayed on a high resolution monitor which shows the entire port. The current positions of all ships, complemented by information about their destinations and realistic speed estimations, enable very reliable forecasts of imminent traffic conditions. Floating car data, in other words movement data of trucks will play an important role. An increasing number of these will be fitted with Bluetooth detectors so that they can be measured at measurement points; when they drive by two measurement points the speed is recorded and the speed data of several vehicles indicates the volume of traffic. The rise in the amount of information from the PTC also increases the quality of the information given to the drivers.
Planning Traffic Capacities Based on Information About Goods from an Import Messaging Platform
Logistics companies and authorities involved in export and import already communicate today via the central data centre belonging to Dakosy, the IT company owned by Hamburger Seehafen‐Verkehrswirtschaft. One of the things Dakosy provides is an import message platform (IMP) [3] which is used by forwarders and transportation companies, shipping firms, railway companies and feeders, but also by customs, the port police, fire brigade and other authorities, as well as production companies and enterprises in the port itself. The IMP is the result of a project group set up by Dakosy in 2004 whose work is subsidised as part of the ISETEC (Innovative Seehafentechnologien) II [4] research programme, initiated by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs as part of the Lean Port Management project.
The IMP consists of a central data pool which collects and provides information about flows of goods into the port and forwarding of these goods from the port. As early as the planning stage, an individual logical data pool with a unique registration number for each import procedure is created, where all the data regarding the planned transportation is stored. Importers and other logistics companies report scheduled transports, what these transports include and their current status. Transatlantic carriers file their customs declarations on the IMP which can then be retrieved by customs and where the appropriate assessments and information on their statuses can be filed.
In this way, the port container terminals are told which containers have which customs status, when they will arrive and what type of onward transportation needs to be planned. Trucks, trains and feeder shipping which are loaded or unloaded at the container terminals receive their transportation orders based on this data.
The level of detailed data on the IMP will increase vastly in the future because a rising number of containers are being fitted with wireless tags. These allow identification of the position of individual containers in the port at any time, regardless of whether they are still located on the ships, on the terminal, or have already been loaded onto trucks or trains. In conjunction with information on destinations this will allow much more accurate traffic planning and faster responses. The limited road space available could therefore be used much more efficiently than in the past and energy efficiency of port traffic will rise too.
Smart Area Parking in the Port, to Relieve Pressure on Existing Road Space
Some of the Smart Area Parking project is already up and running. Its goal is to capture available capacities of four important truck parking spaces in the port and to inform parking space users and the terminal operators accordingly. The purpose is to make the offering of parking areas for trucks at the Port of Hamburg much more effective and environmentally friendly. Traffic resulting from drivers seeking parking spaces and the resulting disruptions on the road network is to be minimised and logistical processes made more efficient as a result.
Incoming and outgoing truck traffic is captured in the smart areas via inductive loop detectors. The vehicles are allocated unique fingerprints so that they can be identified when they depart; data protection considerations mean this is accomplished without linking information to vehicle number plates. The summary of incoming and outgoing vehicles according to quantity and vehicle type reveals the number of parking spaces available.
Furthermore, in the future, statistical data on the analysis of the length of time a vehicle is parked will be captured. This will enable forecasts on how the situation regarding parking spaces will develop in comparable situations. Information on parking spaces is published by the Port Road Management Center. Similarly to traffic updates, it will displayed on the road network on DIVA display panels and sent directly to road users via online information systems.
Pre‐Port Hubs: Goods Handling Outside the Port to Cut Down on In‐Port Traffic
In the long term, the purpose of pre‐port hubs is to boost the benefits of Smart Area Parking as regards traffic in the port. These hubs are container transfer points outside the port site which still need to be constructed and which will also act as smart parking spaces where vehicles wait. Incoming traffic will be grouped into separate lanes for each target terminal and wait until loading capacities there are available. Waiting times at the terminal itself will then be passé. At the same time, transporter shuttles will pass between the terminals and the hubs to hand over their loads there. The objective is to reduce the need for traffic areas and the emission of harmful substances. Overarching terminal handling planning will also shorten the times for handling and forwarding the goods and will therefore benefit the forwarders and their customers.
In the long term, driverless trailers are to be used for shuttle transport of containers between pre‐port hubs and container terminals in order to make disruption‐free handling easier.
38.2.2 Infrastructure Management and Operation
The infrastructure which the HPA is responsible for managing and operating includes all non‐moveable and moveable technical equipment, but also environmental factors such as the Elbe’s fairway. Monitoring operations, maintenance and repair currently entails huge manpower costs and other expenses. By using digital technology, the efficiency and quality of infrastructure maintenance is to be increased significantly in the future; experience is being gained at the moment in two pilot projects.
Status Quo
Smart Switch Pilot Project: Intelligent Points
The port railway has 880 points which need to be checked regularly to ascertain whether repairs or maintenance are necessitated. Despite all the effort required, on‐site inspection teams cannot constantly inspect all points and take action if these prove to be hard to move.
For a while now, 11 points have been converted to smart switches; these include sensors which, based on the electricity consumption and also physical power each time a point is moved, measure whether a point is harder to move than normal and what the air and material temperatures are. Ice, blockages or other mechanical restrictions can therefore be identified immediately. Gradual, minimal increases in electricity consumption over a long period of time also suggest that maintenance on a point will soon be needed. In both cases, Port Monitor is informed accordingly via a network interface.
In this way, operational management of the port railway has an up‐to‐date overview of the condition of the points and can take action before malfunctions occur. Fewer preventative inspections have to be performed at the same time. The number of on‐site staff deployments drops accordingly and fewer malfunctions occur when operating the railway.
Smart Tag Pilot Project: Intelligent Construction Site Beacons
Capture of the situation on daytime construction sites is currently being piloted. Smart Tags are used for this purpose and are integrated into construction site beacons. The tags are a combination of a mobile communications system, Global Positioning System (GPS) sensors and other sensors. The position of the beacon and the working order of its flashing light, the temperature and CO2 levels in the air are recorded. An angle sensor also establishes whether the beacon is still standing or has fallen over. All data is sent to the Port Road Management Center and saved in a traffic data base in real time.
The digital beacon has an impact in two ways. The information collected helps to regulate traffic flow in the port. And the frequency of inspection trips to the construction sites falls drastically.
The intention of the pilot project is to try out a mobile multi‐purpose sensor which in the future can be applied to indispensable objects, such as floating cranes or shunting locomotives in order to obtain environmental data, movement profiles and other information.
Central Infrastructure Control Centre
Intelligent points and intelligent construction site beacons are the first elements in a future sensor‐based network that is to monitor and
optimise the operation and maintenance of all the infrastructure in the port. Static bridges, bascule bridges, lift bridges, locks and barrages, track and railway systems with points, street lighting, traffic lights, electronic display boards and construction site equipment are some of the items that will be fitted with sophisticated sensors. Also included will be quays and dikes with components above and below the water.
Based on sensor data and other information supplied by autonomous surveillance vehicles, it will be possible to read all current load and maintenance conditions, as well as environmental information, at a central infrastructure control centre at any time. This will allow more efficient, forward planning of maintenance and repair work with a much lower impact on the logistical processes in the port. If for example work on a railway bridge and points in the same area of the port occurs at the same time, entailing a negative impact on road‐ and rail‐bound traffic, the control centre will indicate this immediately. The work can then be planned in such a way that the bridge and points are repaired at the same time and minimises disruption to road traffic.
Autonomous Digital Technology for Monitoring and Predictive Maintenance
In addition to the sensor network, in the long term autonomous underwater and overwater vehicles are to be used. These drones can prevent time‐consuming, complex and sometimes dangerous dives because they measure and capture sediment deposits on bridges and locks. They check the condition of quay walls and embankments under water, or capture flow data in the fairway and notify the infrastructure control centre accordingly. This is possible much more frequently than in the past with round‐the‐clock autonomous digital technology. Consequently, information on the condition of the infrastructure is much more up to date, more reliable and better quality.
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