The Information Sharing Platform for Port Container Terminal Logistics using Virtual Reality

Port container terminals are essential intermodal interface in the global transportation network. Owing to advances of container logistics in today's globalized economy, the competitive edge of container terminals has shifted to information management paradigm for the purpose of cost- and time-efficiency. However, an effective yet systematic information sharing strategy, in terms of information acquisition, processing, communication, storage, display and analysis, has not been well addressed. The traditional information from port operation management was conducted using numerical and diagrammatical formats. As a result, it is an imperative to employ the latest visual technologies, i.e. virtual reality (VR) and geographical information system (GIS), to resolve these impacts so as to enhance the efficiency of port logistics. Accordingly, a novel logistics information system, i.e. a VR-based information-sharing infrastructure, which paves a new venue for container terminal operation and control, is proposed and investigated. Finally, a case study on Tianjing Container Port in China is consequently presented to illustrate this approach. It is indicated that the proposed VR-based system can be effectively applied for container terminals operation and facilitate the container terminals logistics process.