At container terminals, containers are transferred between two means of transport, for example from a ship to a lorry or a train and vice versa at JadeWeserPort. Handling between train and ship poses a considerable challenge because, firstly, a group of containers must be unloaded and loaded from the train in the correct order and, secondly, the trains must be manoeuvred into and out of the terminal at the right time. The core aim of the project is to test an automated shunting locomotive and determine its impact on the various processes throughout the port. To this end, a conventional shunting locomotive, the track systems in the terminal and the management software are to be adapted accordingly. The following aspects serve as decisive sub-steps for such a trial:
The railway company schedules its train and shunting movements based on the advance notifications from the railway undertakings (RUs) and the requirements of the connecting parties from the CODIS HASY planning software. Actual journeys are triggered by signals on the interlocking software in accordance with the train service regulations. The technology to be developed must be able to receive or record and utilise the corresponding signal terms. An important starting point is a detailed process analysis.
A joint IT platform is required for the automated, semi-automated and manual planning of shunting movements of rail vehicles on the infrastructure of the port railway and the Eurogate container terminal at JadeWeserPort in Wilhelmshaven. This should link data from the existing IT systems of the railway operation (including interlocking software) with corresponding scheduling software (e.g. CODIS HASY from dbh).
The basis for the automation of shunting locomotive journeys is a reliable and precise determination of the position of the locomotive and the container trains. By integrating map data from the infrastructure, specially tailored localisation solutions can be used for the railway sector, in which position estimation can be reduced to a one-dimensional problem.
By linking the port-side systems with the scheduling systems from the rail operations, an overall optimisation of the processes can be achieved using position-based localisation. The journeys are optimally planned on the infrastructure side according to the ideal requirements of container handling and rail operations and are carried out according to environmental aspects (emission of noise and pollutants). By planning the journeys in advance, the planned drive of the automated shunting locomotive can be used more energy-efficiently and unnecessary shunting journeys can be avoided.
Project title:
RangierTerminal4.0
Duration:
06/2020 to 05/2023
Project volume:
€ 3.500.000 (of which 66% funded by BMDV and € 490,000 by the Institute of Transportation Systems)
Contracting authority:
Federal Ministry for Digital and Transport (BMDV) - Funding programme: Innovative Hafentechnologien (IHATEC)
Project participants:
TÜV Rheinland Consulting GmbH (promoter)
German Aerospace Center (DLR) - Institute of Transportation Systems
JadeWeserPort Realisierungs GmbH & Co. KG (Consortium management)
JadeWeser-Port-Marketing GmbH & Co. KG
Westfälische Lokomotiv-Fabrik Reuschling GmbH & Co. KG
dbh Logistics IT AG
Technische Hochschule Nürnberg Georg Simon Ohm (THN)
