Solving, a stochastic berth allocation problem using a hybrid sequence pair-based simulated annealing algorithm

In this article, a continuous berth allocation problem is studied with stochastic ship arrival and handling times. The objective is to minimize a weighted sum of the expected waiting costs, berthing deviation costs and expected overtime costs. The sequence pair representation is utilized to project the solution space of the problem into two permutations. Then, a scenario-based method is used to capture the uncertainty. To effectively solve the problem over the sequence pair solution space, a simulated annealing is combined with two algorithms. One of the algorithms is used to determine the berthing positions and the other one is used to determine the berthing times. Computational experiments are conducted to evaluate the performance of the solution method and to verify the advantages of the proposed stochastic approach. The results indicate that the proposed methodology is both efficient and effective.