Containers monitoring through the Physical Internet: a spatial 3D model based on wireless sensor networks

Hoa Tran-Dang, Nicolas Krommenacker and Patrick Charpentier

International Journal of Production Research, 2017, vol. 55, issue 9, 2650-2663

Abstract: The Physical Internet concept was developed to address the current unsustainability problem of logistic systems. The key elements are the encapsulation and the handling of world-standard smart green modular containers (π-containers) throughout an open global logistic infrastructure. Logistic processes such as partial loading/unloading or splitting/merging of π-containers play an important role for a successful Physical Internet. However, the large variety of transformation processes can introduce desynchronisation between the physical and informational flows, i.e. the real composition of a composite π-container (a set of stacked π-containers) can differ of the information stored in the supply chain management system. To overcome this problem, this paper proposes a system to generate and maintain automatically a virtual three-dimensional layout reflecting the spatial distribution of π-containers. The proposed approach uses smart π-containers equipped with wireless sensor nodes. The relative position of π-containers can be determined by the neighbourhood relationships between the sensor nodes. From this information, a constraint set is formulated in a Constraint Satisfaction Problem where each solution is a potential loading pattern. The methodology is developed and computational experiments are proposed, as a proof-of-concept. The results show that our proposed method yields quick and satisfactory results.

Date: 2017
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DOI: 10.1080/00207543.2016.1206220

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