Automated guided vehicle traffic control at a container terminal

Because a large number of vehicles use the same infrastructural facilities, the control of automated guided vehicle (AGV) traffic at a container terminal is crucial to the system performance. A new modelling technique which has been used to successfully model the relevant aspects of traffic control is presented in this paper. The control can be imposed by using a hierarchical system of so called semaphores, thus it is possible to follow a structural approach in the design of a traffic control configuration. The technique has been used to model an elementary terminal configuration and tested in a simulation model.