An Improved Shuffled Frog-Leaping Algorithm for Solving the Dynamic and Continuous Berth Allocation Problem (DCBAP)

This research deals with the dynamic and continuous berth allocation problem (DCBAP) in which both arrived and incoming ships are considered and a quay is used as a continuous line to accommodate as many ships as possible at one time. The DCBAP is solved by a two-stage procedure. In the first stage a heuristic/metaheuristic is used to generate alternative ship placement sequences while in the second stage a specific heuristic is employed to place ships and resolve overlaps of ships for the development of a feasible solution. Different methods, including FCFS (First Come First Served), SFLA (Shuffled Frog-Leaping Algorithm), and ISFLA (Improved Shuffled Frog-Leaping Algorithm), were employed in the first stage for comparison. The experimental results show that the ISFLA outperforms the others in terms of solution quality, implying that the ISFLA has the potential to deal with the DCBAP in a container terminal