APPROACH: decentralised rotation planning for container barges
Martijn C. Schut, Michael Kentrop, Mark Leenaarts, Marco Melis, Ian M. Miller · VU Research Portal · 2004
This paper presents the engineering and development process of a software tool (APPROACH) that is designed for decentralised rotation planning for container barges in the port of Rotterdam. For domain analysis and requirements engineering for the tool, a formal organisation dynamics modelling approach was adopted. We present the APPROACH tool demonstrating the added value of automation of rotation planning over traditional planning. The development trajectory of the tool demonstrates the benefits of the used formal modelling approach in a practical real-world setting, resulting in a concrete software tool that can be put into work in the harbour. Preliminary analysis indicates that execution times of barge rotation in the harbour decreases when the tool is used.