Green power supply, remote tally, "unmanned" operations...
Digitalization empowers ports to be smarter (big data observation)
Reporter Jin Boqiang Yu Wen Dou Hao
"People's Daily" (Edition 07, January 3, 2023)
core reading
General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: "The port is a basic and pivotal facility, and an important support for economic development."
From 100% green power supply to dynamic monitoring of pollution sources, from unmanned crane transformation to visual upgrading of loading and unloading processes, port construction is becoming more and more intelligent.
The deep integration of technology and port construction has continuously promoted port production scheduling to reduce costs, improve quality, reduce consumption, and increase efficiency, making ports smarter and greener.
Tianjin Port, the intelligent container terminal in Section C of Beijiang Port Area - the "integration of wind, storage and load" smart green energy system helps the port achieve 100% green power supply;
Wuhan port, container terminal in Yangluo port area - remote tally, unattended gates, etc. have significantly improved the automation level of the port;
Ningbo Zhoushan Port, Meishan Port Area - self-developed container production operation scheduling system, so that each loading and unloading operation order can be issued accurately;
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Ports are basic and pivotal facilities and an important support for economic development.
In recent years, various ports around the world have made great efforts to promote the deep integration of technology and port construction, and the small links of smart upgrades have brought about major changes in port construction.
Energy consumption reduced by more than 17%
Use green energy to build low-carbon docks
Walking into the Beijiang port area of Tianjin Port, the blades of two giant wind turbines are rotating at a constant speed. Together with the ground-mounted distributed photovoltaic power station with the largest installed capacity of a single port in the country, they form a smart green energy system of "integration of wind, storage and load".
"This system allows the C-section terminal to achieve 100% green power supply. Compared with the traditional automated container terminal, the energy consumption is reduced by more than 17%." Yang Rong, general manager of Tianjin Port Second Container Terminal Company, said.
Section C terminal is an intelligent container terminal, and its loading and unloading equipment, horizontal transportation equipment, production auxiliary equipment, etc. are all driven by electric power.
Since the smart green energy system was connected to the grid for power generation, it has supplied 20.77 million kWh of electricity.
In addition to green energy supply, Tianjin Port has also built an intelligent monitoring platform for the ecological environment and atmosphere within the port area. 174 monitoring points realize 24-hour dynamic monitoring, real-time early warning of pollution sources in the port area, and help the low-carbon and environmentally friendly operation of the terminal.
With the increasing intelligence of port construction, it is difficult to find staff in the port area of the C-section wharf. The scheduling and operation of the wharf are all completed by the staff at the intelligent control center several hundred meters away.
Pushing forward, moving sideways, fine-tuning, locking, positioning... In the intelligent control center of Tianjin Port No. It completed container loading and unloading for trucks 1 km away in seconds.
Yang Rong introduced that the efficient operation of the port benefits from the intelligent horizontal transportation system independently developed by Tianjin Port Group. transport robots."
Since last year, the monthly throughput of the C-section intelligent container terminal has increased by more than 20%. Compared with the traditional container terminal, the number of personnel has been reduced by 60%, and the number of container operations has been reduced by 50%.
On October 13, 2022, as the standard containers were steadily hoisted from the intelligent horizontal transport robot and loaded into the nearly 400-meter-long "COSCO Shipping Libra" container ship, the terminal completed the target of 1 million standard containers.
From the start of construction to the millionth TEU, the terminal took only 33 months.
Complete the operation two kilometers away
Remote intelligent tally, reducing security risks
The sky is drizzling, and a cargo ship is slowly sailing to the container terminal in Yangluo Port Area of Wuhan Port.
A few days ago, the shipping agency declared the detailed information of the cargo through the system, and the terminal operation department had already arranged the operation plan. As soon as the ship berthed, the work could start immediately.
The moment the container is hoisted, the spherical camera installed on the quay crane starts to operate, automatically scanning the container and the container trucks waiting in the field in all directions.
In the intelligent tally monitoring room two kilometers away, Tao Jia, a tally worker, stared at the two computers in front of him.
"The camera automatically captures information such as the truck license plate, container number, and container type. The background also collects images of container damage and lead seals, and transmits them to the computer in real time through the 5G network."
Tao Jia pointed to the photo on the screen and said: "Look, the system is comparing. After the check is correct, click to confirm the loading and unloading data to generate a ship stowage map, and a complete tally operation process is over."
Tallying is the first pass for containers to enter the port, and it is also an important link in the delivery of goods between the terminal and the ship.
In September last year, the intelligent tally system developed based on technologies such as 5G and artificial intelligence achieved full coverage in the Yangluo Port Area of Wuhan Port.
The tally staff completely bid farewell to "stand and stare at the box", and are no longer in the operation site where the truck shuttles and the quay crane is lifted, which greatly reduces safety hazards.
"At present, we only arrange 4 tallyers for one shift, and one tallyer can operate 3 production lines at the same time, and the information recognition accuracy rate exceeds 98%." Wang Pan, assistant general manager of Wuhan Zhongli Ocean Shipping Tally Co., Ltd. Feng said.
On the other side, Master Yi, the truck driver, was driving to the dock yard.
Turn on the mobile phone, and the pre-recording APP of the collection card pushes two pieces of information about picking up the box, and the operation area, bill of lading number and box number are clearly marked.
After the weighbridge was weighed, Master Yi scanned the pick-up reservation code on the machine at the gate, and the passage lifted the pole to let it pass, and the truck entered the port area smoothly.
"In the past, everyone had to line up to go through paper documents before leaving the port, which was time-consuming and laborious. Now it is much more convenient to not get out of the car during the whole process!" said Master Yi.
In 2022, the Yangluo Port Area will fully implement the transformation of smart gates.
After the transformation, the gate automatically recognizes the truck number and container number, realizing 24-hour unattended, and the average time for vehicles to pass the gate has been reduced from the previous 160 seconds to 30 seconds.
The port area also uses cloud computing and blockchain technology to independently design a set of online reservation acceptance platform, which integrates the business data of freight forwarders, drivers, customs and other nodes into a data stream. The terminal can quickly obtain the dynamics of container entry and exit, and realize operation Scientific allocation of resources.
The average annual growth rate of container throughput is 25%.
Overall planning and prediction, optimizing the operation path
In the Meishan port area of Ningbo Zhoushan Port, container trucks come in and out, which is a busy scene, but there is no one in the trucks that are driving smoothly on the road.
Wang Qiming, the driver who used to drive trucks in the port area, is sitting in the remote cockpit in the office building at the moment, staring at the monitoring screen in front of him intently. His job is to remotely manually take over the vehicles when necessary to ensure that the trucks Smooth and safe operation.
On August 30, 2022, for the first time, Ningbo Zhoushan Port's smart trucks realized two-way "unmanned" actual ship operations in a closed area.
Thanks to the n-TOS container production operation scheduling system independently developed by Ningbo Zhoushan Port, the loading and unloading operation instructions for each container can be issued accurately.
As the "core brain" of the terminal, the system has gone through hundreds of tests and 9 rounds of online drills, and will be launched in 2020, successfully filling the technical gap.
At present, the n-TOS system has achieved full coverage in the main container terminals of Ningbo Zhoushan Port.
Now, with the help of the "dual-core brain" composed of n-TOS and IECS intelligent equipment dispatching system, Ningbo Zhoushan Port can predict the overall planning and prediction of port production operations, give the optimal operation path, and send it to the remote control equipment at the same time to realize container displacement to complete the loading and unloading of the cargo.
"In addition to the intelligent dispatching system, the navigation and positioning system and the 5G communication system are also crucial." Ren Xiaobo, deputy general manager of Ningbo Zhoushan Port Co., Ltd., said that Ningbo Zhoushan Port has a backbone network supported by 5G communication technology and 612 public trunk lines All navigation marks are upgraded to Beidou equipment.
Now, with the characteristics of 5G high-speed, low-latency, and wide-connection, Ningbo Zhoushan Port has realized the concurrent operation of multiple intelligent unmanned container trucks.
At present, the Meishan Port Area of Ningbo Zhoushan Port has formed the world's largest cluster of remote control equipment.
Compared with two years ago, the loading and unloading efficiency of the whole ship in the port area has increased by 10%, the waiting time and transit time of truck operations have been shortened by 8%, and the container throughput in the port area has increased by an average of 25% annually.
(People's Daily)