UAV Path Planning for Container Terminal Yard Inspection in a Port Environment

Container terminal yards are automated terminal yards. The rail-mounted gantry crane (RMGC) and rail-mounted gantry crane tracks (RMGCTs) that frequently operate in terminal yards need to be inspected regularly to ensure the safe operation of container transportation in the yard. This paper proposes...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of Marine Science and Engineering
Main Authors: Gang Tang, Chenyuan Wang, Zhao Zhang, Shaoyang Men
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2024-01-01
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1312/12/1/128
Description
Summary:Container terminal yards are automated terminal yards. The rail-mounted gantry crane (RMGC) and rail-mounted gantry crane tracks (RMGCTs) that frequently operate in terminal yards need to be inspected regularly to ensure the safe operation of container transportation in the yard. This paper proposes a framework for the path planning of RMGCT visual inspection using a UAV in container terminal yards in a port environment. The framework consisted of two main aspects. First, a global path to all inspection viewpoints was planned according to the inspection requirements using the A* algorithm and the improved minimum snap method. Second, the intelligent bidirectional rapidly exploring random trees star (IB-RRT*) algorithm was introduced to plan the local path during the flight of the UAV. Finally, the feasibility of the path-planning framework was demonstrated using simulation experiments.
ISSN:2077-1312