Automatic horizontal container transshipment system

To reduce the ever rising road freight traffic, container transport by railway has to be promoted. Since, nowadays the intermodal transport of freight containers with railway and trucks is only lucrative on large terminals, new small economical terminals have to be invented. To save costs, an automatic container transshipment system which can be operated by a truck driver himself is introduced here. The horizontal construction of the system allows transferring the container under live catenary. Due to the fact that an extra operating personal is not needed and that the system can handle standard containers without any modifications at the containers, at the trucks or at the railway wagons, the terminal can be operated economically. This paper first shows the economical aspects of such a small terminal. Then, the construction of the machine is explained with a focus on the laser scanner sensor system to detect the container fittings for the automatic gripping of the containers. Further, the paper describes the control scheme of some of the mechanically coupled electrical actuators needed to run the machine.