Hyundai Glovis said on the 12th it will introduce its self-developed artificial intelligence (AI)-based ship stowage plan technology to its own car carriers.
A stowage plan refers to designing in advance how to arrange cargo on a ship to improve the efficiency and safety of cargo transport.
When information such as the types and quantities of vehicles to be loaded on the ship, loading and discharge ports, and more is entered into Hyundai Glovis' AI-based stowage plan algorithm, it automatically derives optimized loading positions by considering the port call order and the cargo's weight and height.
Generally, a car carrier that has departed carries thousands of vehicles bound for various destinations. For this reason, if the stowage plan is poorly made, vehicles that must be unloaded at an intermediate port call can be blocked by vehicles headed to the next destination.
In this case, a large number of vehicles must be unloaded at the port call and then reloaded, which in turn leads to transport delays and additional expense. By using AI-based stowage planning technology, such inefficiencies can be prevented in advance, avoiding unnecessary waste of time and expense.
In addition, for heavy, large cargo such as heavy equipment, the loading position is set in the lower part of the ship after considering each deck's height and load-bearing capacity on the car carrier. This evenly distributes the ship's center of gravity. "Seaworthiness," the ability of a ship to safely maintain balance while sailing, is one of the main considerations when establishing a stowage plan.
Hyundai Glovis' AI stowage plan algorithm operates based on its in-house data design technology for which it has completed patent filing. It is a data model that systematically represents structural characteristics and mobility by finely separating the inside of the car carrier by deck and section.
Through this, AI can determine vehicle movement routes and possible placement locations. In other words, by organizing the ship's complex interior structure so AI can understand it, the AI automatically checks whether there are any sections where vehicle movement routes are blocked, whether height or weight conditions are met, and whether the order of loading and unloading is correct, and then derives the optimal stowage plan.
In the case of car carriers, each ship's internal structure is not identical, and the cargo mix changes each time, making it difficult to establish a stowage plan based on uniform standards. Also, because more than 6,000 vehicles are loaded per voyage, many specialists have been deployed and a considerable amount of time has been spent to establish stowage plans.
A Hyundai Glovis official said, "As a result of loading and unloading work carried out according to the stowage plan established with this technology, it showed a level of safety and efficiency similar to that designed by specialists, and the time required to establish the stowage plan was reduced to about half compared with the previous roughly 27 hours," adding, "once the technology is advanced, it is expected to decrease by more than 90%."
Hyundai Glovis plans to sequentially apply this technology to all car carriers it operates.