
Massive Robots Keep Docks Shipshape - eplanit
http://www.wsj.com/articles/massive-robots-keep-docks-shipshape-1459104327
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Animats
The US is behind in dock automation, but that seems to be because US ports are
typically many little operators instead of one big one. The Port of Rotterdam
operates a highly automated port. The Port of Los Angeles is a landlord; the
port operators are private companies.

The real question is where you do the container sorting. There are several
approaches. One is to unload containers and move them to container stacks,
from which they are later unstacked as requested and moved to trucks or
trains. Rotterdam and most of the highly automated ports are set up that way.
Another is to unload containers from ships directly onto railroad cars or
trucks. The Port of Los Angeles does a lot of this. They have a good rail
connection, built a few years ago, that bypasses LA traffic.

Unloading ships to railcars implies sorting somewhere else. For LA, "somewhere
else" is often Fontana, CA, which is about 30 miles east of LA and beyond the
traffic, but has access to four major Interstates and major rail lines.
Railcar sorting takes place in railroad hump yards, which have been automated
since the 1950s.

Europe doesn't do as much railcar sorting because they still have crappy
manual freight car couplers. The US uses standard automatic couplers on all
freight cars (Congress mandated this in 1893), but the UK and Western Europe
still have mostly manual couplers of a 1830 design on freight trains. (Yes,
there's an EU standard automatic coupler, but it's not used much.) As a
result, hump yards are rare in Europe. The freight rolling stock is also
lighter because the couplers are weaker. That's why you still see dinky
freight cars in Europe. Also, the US has a bigger loading gauge, and most US
mainline track will now accommodate double-stacked container cars. The US is
way ahead of the EU in freight rail.

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pm90
Are US railroads designed for double stacking, though? I've seen many
railroads criss-crossed by highway overpasses etc. Wouldn't that put double
stacking out of the question?

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Animats
Much US mainline track, especially in the Western states, has been upgraded to
AAR Plate H, which has a 20' 3" maximum height. This is huge. The classic
(1946) standard is AAR Plate B, which is only 15' 1" height. This is the
"standard interchange" size - a car that fits within Plate B can go anywhere
on American railroads.

The EU, and especially the UK have much smaller loading gauges. The UK's gauge
plates have curved tops, which is a bad match to shipping containers with a
square cross section. Just getting one 9'6" container on UK rail is a
headache. There are all those old stonework bridges with limited clearance.

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twright
Despite the obvious advantages of reduced costs and increased efficiency,
standardized containers were initially resisted in the shipping industry
(~1950s). We're no doubt going to see the same resistance to dock automation.
Anyone interested in this more should read "The Box".

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pm90
Amazon link to the book, in case people are curios:
[http://www.amazon.com/The-Box-Shipping-Container-
Smaller/dp/...](http://www.amazon.com/The-Box-Shipping-Container-
Smaller/dp/0691136408)

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xupybd
The move to automation is going to be painful; people will loose jobs. But in
the age of the global economy, I think it's the only hope for countries like
America to outcompete their low wage neighbours. History has shown that as we
mechanise, new jobs appear. I'm not sure there that it's possible to stifle
automation and maintain economic growth in the developed world. That said I'm
sure that is of little comfort to a dock worker.

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blacksmith_tb
Dock work is dangerous, and thus also well-compensated. So these lost jobs
will make more of a splash (so to speak) than many.

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Terr_
> handing the boxes off to another set of androids

Uhm, if they don't resemble humans, then they aren't androids. (Or gynoids.) I
wonder how much "android" phones are to blame for the erosion of
terminology...

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13of40
I just got this image of a classic Star Wars scene:

"These aren't the 'droids you're looking for. Seriously. Hell, the stubby one
isn't even a 'droid. Look it up."

~~~
Terr_
Very true... Although I think Artoo does get some major "person-like" bonus
for exhibiting sapience and consciousness.

If their dock-robots exhibit R2-levels of intelligence, I will withdraw my
objection :P

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chris_wot
I love this :-) However, how does 10s of millions of dollars in investment pay
off in the end? Are the efficiencies that important - and if so, does anyone
know where precisely savings are made?

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Shivetya
I would assume that they don't tire, have as many safety issues, and don't
mind the weather. Plus they don't go on strike. Throw in as automation
improves then efficiency will go up and this will make moving goods even
cheaper regardless of source. The more we can move people out of physically
dangerous situations the better. That crane operator sitting in the air
conditioned office certainly sees a benefit. Eventually the cargo will get
loaded on robotic trucks, trains, and the like, and its trip across the
country will be similar. Akin to changing the whole distribution process
across the world into a large scale warehouse.

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Gravityloss
They don't go on strike. They can however likely be hacked. Ports are a
vulnerable point of societies.

