Approximate the scheduling of quay cranes with non-crossing constraints

An Zhang, Wenshuai Zhang, Yong Chen, Guangting Chen and Xufeng Chen

European Journal of Operational Research, 2017, vol. 258, issue 3, 820-828

Abstract: In port container terminals, the scheduling of quay cranes (QCs) for a container vessel is one of the most critical operations. This paper investigates the problem of scheduling quay cranes with non-crossing constraints, wherein QCs cannot cross over each other because they are on the same track. The objective is to minimise the makespan of a container vessel, which is the latest completion time among all handling tasks of the vessel. Compared with several 2-approximation algorithms in the literature, this paper presents an approximation algorithm with a worst case ratio 2−2m+1<2 for any m QCs. This ratio is demonstrated to be the best possible among all partition-based algorithms in the literature. Besides, we study the scheduling of two quay cranes with different processing speeds. For an arbitrary speed ratio s ≥ 1, an approximation algorithm with worst case ratio (1+s)21+s+s2 is provided.

Keywords: Scheduling; Non-crossing; Quay cranes; Approximation algorithms; Worst case analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ejores:v:258:y:2017:i:3:p:820-828

DOI: 10.1016/j.ejor.2016.10.021

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