Title: Recharging Scheduling of Automated Guided Vehicle Using Multi-Agent Q learning

Report Abstract: 

As ports are required to reach net zero emission in the future, there is presently a strong push in the port community to adopt measures such as using cleaner energy, automation and digitalization. Port automation and digital technology allows green fuel to be used and making terminal operations more efficient, therefore reducing the carbon footprint. In recent years, there is a greater adoption of battery- powered automated guided vehicles (AGVs) in automated containers, replacing diesel power AGVs. As a battery powered AGV may require recharging during its operations, it brings in new complexity in the scheduling and deployment of AGV. The main challenges of recharging scheduling can be attributed to the limited charging station capacity and the tight job schedule for each vehicle. We will present a multi-agent Q learning approach to address the recharging scheduling in a large container terminal. The objective is to provide a recharging schedule that would minimize the delay to the jobs, which in turn will improve the gross quay crane rate.

Speaker: CHEW Ek Peng

Date/Time: 10:00 – 11:30AM, 19 April, 2023

Platform: Tencent Meeting ID: 483-411-870

Speaker Biography: 

Dr CHEW Ek Peng received his Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology, USA. He is currently a Professor in the Department of Industrial Systems Engineering and Management at the National University of Singapore. He holds positions as Director for the Centre of Excellence in Modeling and Simulation for Next Generation Ports, and Director for the Centre of Maritime Studies. He was a Visiting Scholar and a Visiting Professor, respectively, at the Georgia Institute of Technology and University of British Columbia in 2006. His current research areas are in port logistics and maritime transportation, simulation optimization and inventory management. Some of his research works are published in journals such as Transportation Science, Transportation Research Part B, IISE Transactions, European Journal of Operational Research, and Naval Research Logistics. He is serving as Editor-in-Chief of the Asia Pacific Journal of Operational Research, member of the Editorial Board Editors of the Transportation Research Part B, member in the Editorial of Flexible Services and Manufacturing Journal. He has also co-edited a book in “Advances in Maritime Logistics and Supply Chain Systems’, a special issue for OR Spectrum on “IT-based planning and control of seaport container terminals and freight transportation systems” and three special issues for Flexible Services and Manufacturing Journal on “Maritime Container Logistics and Onshore Transportation Systems (Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3)”. He and the late Dr. Lee Loo Hay has recently led a team of multidisciplinary researchers and experience practitioners to win the Next Generation Container Port Challenge with a grand prize of US$1 mil by proposing a revolutionary double-storey container terminal, called the SINGA port.