Robust Berth Allocation Problems at Transshipment Terminals

Standard models for the berth allocation problem are commonly based on the assumption that arrival times are known in advance without uncertainty. Hence, as soon as some random disturbance occurs, delaying the arrival of some critical vessel, the planned "optimal" schedule may easily result far from optimality or even infeasible and possibly difficult to recover. This has motivated the recent interest towards berth allocation models dealing with uncertainties. We particularly focus on models facing the uncertainty according to the robust paradigm, with the aim of constructing berth plans that are less sensitive to uncertainties, hence preventing propagation of possible delays to other ships in the schedule.