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Peer-reviewedCC BY 4.0PLOS One

Optimization of multi-objective flexible scheduling for container rail mounted gantry cranes in railway logistics yards

  • Huawei Wang1
  • Chunjie Xu2
  • Yunjiao Hou
  • Jiahuan Zhang
  • Zongyang Liu
  1. 1Institute of Computing Technologies, China Academy of Railway Sciences Corporation Limited, Beijing, China
  2. 2Department of Freight System, Beijing Jingwei Information Technology Co., Ltd, Beijing, China
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Abstract

With the advancement of multimodal transport systems, railway logistics terminals have become critical hubs connecting different transport modes, and the efficiency of rail-mounted gantry crane (RMG) operations directly affects train handling performance. This study develops a revised multi-objective scheduling framework for flexible RMG operations in railway container terminals. The model considers three coordinated criteria: total completion time, workload balance among RMGs, and path-interference prevention under dynamic safety-distance requirements. To improve practical solvability, the framework combines resource enumeration, initial crane layout optimization, and an improved genetic algorithm with adaptive operators and tabu-search-based local refinement. In the Xi’an International Port Station case with 110 container tasks and five RMGs, the proposed IGA obtained an average completion time of 752.4 min under the baseline configuration and remained feasible under tested safety-distance and crane-number scenarios. The results indicate that integrating initial layout decisions with flexible task assignment can improve schedule quality in the tested case. The claims are limited to the reported instance, and the method is presented as a reproducible heuristic rather than a proof of global optimality.

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Cite

BibTeXRIS
BibTeX
@article{wang2026optimization,
  title = {{Optimization of multi-objective flexible scheduling for container rail mounted gantry cranes in railway logistics yards}},
  author = {Huawei Wang and Chunjie Xu and Yunjiao Hou and Jiahuan Zhang and Zongyang Liu},
  journal = {PLOS One},
  year = {2026},
  month = sep,
  doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0357406},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0357406},
  note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY  - JOUR
TI  - Optimization of multi-objective flexible scheduling for container rail mounted gantry cranes in railway logistics yards
AU  - Huawei Wang
AU  - Chunjie Xu
AU  - Yunjiao Hou
AU  - Jiahuan Zhang
AU  - Zongyang Liu
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/09/16
JO  - PLOS One
DO  - 10.1371/journal.pone.0357406
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0357406
AB  - With the advancement of multimodal transport systems, railway logistics terminals have become critical hubs connecting different transport modes, and the efficiency of rail-mounted gantry crane (RMG) operations directly affects train handling performance. This study develops a revised multi-objective scheduling framework for flexible RMG operations in railway container terminals. The model considers three coordinated criteria: total completion time, workload balance among RMGs, and path-interference prevention under dynamic safety-distance requirements. To improve practical solvability, the framework combines resource enumeration, initial crane layout optimization, and an improved genetic algorithm with adaptive operators and tabu-search-based local refinement. In the Xi’an International Port Station case with 110 container tasks and five RMGs, the proposed IGA obtained an average completion time of 752.4 min under the baseline configuration and remained feasible under tested safety-distance and crane-number scenarios. The results indicate that integrating initial layout decisions with flexible task assignment can improve schedule quality in the tested case. The claims are limited to the reported instance, and the method is presented as a reproducible heuristic rather than a proof of global optimality.
SN  - 1932-6203
ER  -