MOCONT: a new system for automatic identification and location of containers

Most container terminals operate a Terminal Operating System (TOS) to record the positioning of containers inside the terminal yard and to plan container handling operations. TOS are well designed and implemented, but they are usually fed with man-gathered information, which are often unreliable or late. That is often a cause of several problems, which reduces the effectiveness of the plan suggested by the Terminal Operating System. MOCONT aims at providing terminal operators with a tool to automatically detect the container position in the yard and update the TOS through a radio link. MOCONT is co-financed by the European Union under the scope of the Fifth Framework Program on Research and Technological Development. The authors present the architecture of the system, its functional analysis and the main issues of the work.