The effective forecast of container volumes can provide decision support for port scheduling and operating. In this work, by deep learning the historical dataset, the long short-term memory (LSTM) recurrent neural network (RNN) is used to predict daily volumes of containers which will enter the storage yard. The raw dataset of daily container volumes in a certain port is chosen as the training set and preprocessed with box plot. Then the LSTM model is established with Python and Tensorflow framework. The comparison between LSTM and other prediction methods like ARIMA model and BP neural network is also provided in this study, and the prediction gap of LSTM is lower than other methods. It is promising that the proposed LSTM is helpful to predict the daily volumes of containers.

Digital twin (DT), machine learning, and industrial Internet of things (IIoT) provide great potential for the transformation of the container terminal from automation to intelligence. The production control in the loading and unloading process of automated container terminals (ACTs) involves complex situations, which puts forward high requirements for efficiency and safety. To realize the real-time optimization and security of the ACT, a framework integrating DT with the AdaBoost algorithm is proposed in this study. The framework is mainly composed of physical space, a data service platform, and virtual space, in which the twin space and service system constitute virtual space. In the proposed framework, a multidimensional and multiscale DT model in twin space is first built through a 3D MAX and U3D technology. Second, we introduce a random forest and XGBoost to compare with AdaBoost to select the best algorithm to train and optimize the DT mechanism model. Third, the experimental results show that the AdaBoost algorithm is better than others by comparing the performance indexes of model accuracy, root mean square error, interpretable variance, and fitting error. In addition, we implement empirical experiments by different scales to further evaluate the proposed framework. The experimental results show that the mode of the DT-based terminal operation has higher loading and unloading efficiency than that of the conventional terminal operation, increasing by 23.34% and 31.46% in small-scale and large-scale problems, respectively. Moreover, the visualization service provided by the DT system can monitor the status of automation equipment in real time to ensure the safety of operation.

With the rapid development of world economy and trade and the continuous construction of green port, automated container terminal (ACT) has increasingly become the direction of future development. Layout design is the premise of ACT construction, which has an at least 50-year influence on the terminal. Therefore, this paper hopes to analyze and design the typical ACT layout to achieve sustainable development of the port. Firstly, a conceptual model is presented considering the interaction between different areas within the ACT when the width and length of the terminal are fixed. To select the optimal layout to achieve the goal of the green terminal, a novel mathematical model is established based on the energy consumption during cycle operation of various devices which can estimate the total carbon emission of an ACT over a period and is suitable for designing period. Then, with the developed model, an ACT in East China was taken as a case study. Finally, according to various analysis of the data results, the layout suggestion considering the sustainable development of the port is given.