A path planning heuristic for automated guided vehicles in container terminals

¹ Mines Saint-Etienne, CNRS, UMR 6158 LIMOS, 13120 Gardanne, France
² Laboratoire d’Analyse et d’Architecture des Systèmes, CNRS, 31400 Toulouse, France

^* Corresponding author: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Received: 15 December 2024
Accepted: 10 December 2025

Abstract

The use of Automated Guided Vehicles for container transportation within container termi- nals has emerged as a promising approach to enhance their efficiency and competitiveness over the last two decades. This development has created a need to optimize the utilization of these resources, partic- ularly through efficient path planning within their operating environment. In this work, we propose a Integer Linear Programming-based heuristic to address the problem of collision-free path planning for Automated Guided Vehicles in automated container terminals, where multiple transportation missions need to be performed by each vehicle. The method is evaluated and tested through extensive numeri- cal experiments. Conclusions are drawn regarding its efficiency, and directions for future research are suggested.