Author(s)

C W. van der Vorm, H. Ligteringen and J. Onassis

Abstract

Automatic loading and unloading of inland container barges C.W. van der Vorm , H. Ligteringen and J. Onassis' ^ Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands * Alkyon Hydraulic Consultancy & Research, Marknesse, The Netherlands Abstract This paper concentrates on the future design of inland barge service centres: focusing primarily on automatic loading and unloading of containers. Over the past decade transport of containers by inland barges in Rotterdam has increased consistently: They presently carry more than 35% of the hinterland transport of containers in Rotterdam which is expected to increase to 50% in the near future. Currently manually operated cranes process the loading and unloading of inland shipping. To allow the operation to be carried out automatically, the motions of crane and ship need to be tuned with the utmost precision: the accuracy of placing the container and the movement of the ship due to external conditions will decide whether or not automation is a feasible op

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