Vessel routing for sweeping of marine litter in a port area

Conference paper (2016)

Authors

M.B. Duinkerken Transport Engineering and Logistics - Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering
G. Lodewijks Transport Engineering and Logistics - Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering
R.R. Negenborn Transport Engineering and Logistics - Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering
Research Group
Transport Engineering and Logistics (Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering) (TU Delft)
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Published Date

2016

Language

English

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Faculty

Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering

Department

Marine and Transport Technology

Research Group

Transport Engineering and Logistics

Abstract

Marine litter in port areas has a huge negative environmental impact and poses a risk to vessels. Therefore port authorities are using special vessels for sweeping. Nowadays, these vessels are usually only deployed after complaints on excessive amounts of marine litter. In this paper an innovative routing method is proposed to sweep marine litter in a port area proactively. The routing method is formulated as a mixed-integer programming (MIP) model. In order to test the sweeping model a dynamic model is developed that predicts the locations in the port area where marine litter will accumulate depending on factors like supply, physical dimensions of port compartments and wind directions. To benchmark the performance of the sweeping model simulations are performed comparing the routing method with other more intuitive policies. It is concluded that using the sweeping policy lower litter levels can be achieved at lower costs.