Ship Traffic Optimization for the Kiel Canal

Elisabeth Lübbecke (), Marco E. Lübbecke () and Rolf H. Möhring ()
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Elisabeth Lübbecke: Workforce Management, INFORM Software GmbH, D-52076 Aachen, Germany
Marco E. Lübbecke: Lehrstuhl für Operations Research, RWTH Aachen University, D-52072 Aachen, Germany
Rolf H. Möhring: Institut für Mathematik, Technische Universität Berlin, D-10623 Berlin, Germany

Operations Research, 2019, vol. 67, issue 3, 791-812

Abstract: In “Ship Traffic Optimization for the Kiel Canal,” Lübbecke, Lübbecke, and Möhring develop graph-based models and algorithms to solve a practical traffic scheduling problem. It arises in the operational planning of bidirectional traffic where vehicles can pass each other only at dedicated locations—e.g., vessels that navigate narrow waterways. The authors provide decision support for the particular planning problem at the German Kiel Canal, the world’s most frequented artificial waterway, but their findings generalize, e.g., to scheduling trains on a stretch of single tracks or collision-free routing of robot arms. Mathematically, these planning problems expose a rich combinatorial structure. Ideas from quickest path algorithms and job-shop scheduling are integrated to handle all practical constraints at a high level of detail. The modelling does not need any time or space discretization. The software tool developed during the study was also used to assess strategic options of enlarging the canal

Keywords: dynamic routing; conflict-free routing; job-shop scheduling; local search; rolling horizon (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:inm:oropre:v:67:y:2019:i:3:p:791-812

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