Journal articles on the topic 'Cargo handling - Automation'

With the rapid development of modern logistics technology and automation of information technology, the AS/RS has been more and more widely used in the field of medicine logistics. In order to more effectively manage AS/RS, improve the rationality of the layout, reduce the number of goods handling and storage costs, it demands to optimize the cargo space allocation for goods .This article adopts multi-objective genetic algorithm to solve the optimization problem of cargo space allocation modeling, and use Jointown pharmaceutical logistics center as an example to further verify the analysis, getting the ideal optimization results and the simulation image.

AbstractDuring the last three decades, technological innovations in cargo handling equipment have made it possible to automate operational processes in container terminals. Despite the increasing trend in terminal automation, little work has been done to develop theoretical guidelines for evaluating the benefits of this industrial practice. We assess terminal automation by focusing on whether strategic content and process structure are aligned. In this study, we explore the reasons that these results are mixed in the context of service automation. Have market competitiveness and operational performance been enhanced by automation in seaports? We focus on two key strategic elements and their proper alignment to produce the best performance for a port. The first element is the overall business strategy and strategic content adopted by the port. In this study, we look at Porter’s (Competitive strategy, Free Press, New York, 1980) generic strategic classification of low cost, differentiation, or focus strategies. The second element is the process structure of the port, which may have been impacted by technological innovation. Using the framework of contingency theory, we explore the interface of strategic content and process structure and how this interface impacts the service process automation. A multiple case study is conducted on a sample of 20 container terminals, selected from the list of 2014 Journal of Commerce’s Top Productive Terminals. We come up with three important findings. First, a port’s strategic market position determines the choice of overall business strategy. If a port is strategically positioned as an international gate, then it should adopt an overall cost-leadership strategy, whereas a transshipment terminal should adopt an overall differentiation strategy. Second, we find that the process structure adopted is associated with the level of automation, and a differentiation strategy is dependent on the level of flexibility, speed, and reliability. Higher market uncertainty requires higher flexibility, while lower market uncertainty requires greater speed and reliability. Third, the level of process automation depends on throughput volume and stability. Closer relationships with maritime supply–chain partners help increase throughput volume and reduce throughput uncertainty.

Brief presentation of Transport Problems scientific journal.Published since 2006, minimal number of issues per year: 4. Average annual number of articles: 65.Publisher: Silesian University of Technology, Poland. p-ISSN: 1896–0596; e-ISSN2300–861X.Topics of articles:• road transport, railway transport, air and space transport, sea and river transport;• industrial transport;• urban communication, transport issues for smart cities;• transport management in megacities, modeling of transport systems, traffic control;• bicycles, scooters and motorcycles, as means of transport;• preparing cargo, cargo forwarding and delivery, coordination of cargo handling operations;• logistics centers, integrated transport systems;• intermodal, multimodal and combined transport;• computer systems for design of vehicles;• mechanical engineering, rolling stock and vehicles’ manufacture;• technical troubleshooting of vehicles;• active and passive safety features, safety of transport systems;• traffic forecasting and regional requirements, transport statistics;• impact of safety legislation on transport;• transport automation;• transport economics;• transport and environmental problems;• impact of transport on health problems and ergonomics;• transport infrastructure;• education for transport industry;• more specific issues of transport (by agreement with the editors).The journal is included in most international reference databases, including Scopus (since 2012) and WoS (since 2016).The journal has the status of Open Access and is included in the database DOAJ. All articles are available for download in PDF format.Web-page of the journal: http://transportproblems.polsl.pl/en/default.aspx contains information on publication requirements, editorial and licensing policies, as well as the adopted review procedure are published there.

The world's container cargo trading is increasing daily, and the role of the container terminal is becoming more important as the center of cargo transportation. In Japan, new container terminals being constructed face very severe competition with larger, cheaper terminals so they must handle cargo more efficiently and cheaply. To cope, handling systems such as container cranes, yard cranes, and conveyers are being automated to enable unattended operation unloading and loading schedule planning, etc., are being computerized. In these system, crane automation and control computerization are already generalized, but automatic control of container conveyers is not completed yet. The container conveyer -15m long, 4m wide, and 1.5m high - picks up containers from container ships with a container crane and hauls them to the shift yard for release to the yard crane. Both crane are operated automatically, so the conveyer must stop at the desired position within a permissible error of ±7.5cm, and run on a predetermined course and speed. Collision avoidance is required because many vehicles oparate on the same course. The automated guided vehicle (AGV) system, which is diesel-driven, 4WS and 4WD, was thought to be effective, but container weights very widely, as do road conditions which depend on weather, so conventional control is not sufficient to maintain the required accuracy. We applied learning control to maintain the desired course and for stopping at the desired position. Speed was controlled, conventionally. The system's applicability was confirmed with computer simulation and vehicle performance testing. This system will be used at the Kawasaki container terminal in 1999 and we are currently working on improving performance.

Quite often there is an oversaturation of the platform with ground aircraft, which is designed for the operation of modern international airports, especially in the so-called "rush hour". The emergence of such a situation may affect the emergence of risks in the implementation of airport technologies, which are associated with a probable reduction in the level of safety of ground vehicles on the platform, the formation of clusters of aircraft maintenance at the parking lot and the possibility of damage to aircraft on the ground, psychological stress aviation personnel and other unforeseen situations. To avoid melon situations that are directly related to the possible danger at airports, it is necessary to use multifunctional models of aviation ground equipment, which will provide several technological processes for ground handling of aircraft, passengers, mail and cargo by creating hybrid structures of special vehicles and equipment. and automation. For example, the use of multifunctional telescopic ladders allows not only to ensure a high level of comfort when boarding / disembarking passengers in aircraft, but also significantly increase the parking space in the buffer area of ​​ground maintenance of aircraft for other types of ground aircraft by reducing the latter, which will increase the level of safety of aircraft maintenance and economic efficiency in the activities of airport services and handling companies.

To develop the northern territories and ensure a normal life for people working there, significant quantities of construction materials, fuel, machinery, equipment, food and other goods are needed, a significant part of which must be transported to these territories. The peculiarity of the processes of transportation of goods to the Northern regions by road is that most of the transportation process is carried out using temporary roads which are called winter (or snow) roads [1, 2].Unlike permanent paved roads with corresponding infrastructure maintenance elements, winter roads have a traffic track representing a snow-cleared lane without specially prepared layers of pavement. The track has temporary landmarks [3, 4]. However, in bad weather, sudden changes in temperature, the route can be «lost», which negatively affects reliability and safety of the transportation process. Geoinformatics tools allow to create a virtual spatial model of a temporary road, which can be shown on an electronic map [5–7]. Satellite navigation tools form actual navigation data, which are « linked» to the route by means of geoinformatics. The current location of a vehicle on a winter road track can be displayed using an electronic terrain map on a display screen of an on-board telematic unit [8–10]. The objective of the article is to consider the main tasks that are solved by the supervisory control system when monitoring movement of vehicles on temporary winter roads. Using mathematical methods and special methods of analysis and planning of road transportation, a methodological basis has been developed to increase the level of automation of basic functions of the dispatch control of road transportation of goods in mixed multimodal traffic based on the use of information generated by GLONASS global navigation system. It is shown that the use of geoinformatics, mobile communications and satellite navigation will significantly improve reliability and safety of the processes of cargo transportation in the North of Russia. According to experts, the use of the proposed methodology allows reducing time for cargo handling by an average of 30 % and decision-making time by 50 %, as well as increasing the efficiency of using vehicles by reducing by 95 % the number of deviations from the planned schedule.

The features of the BIM model development for marine port facilities operation are discussed. Infrastructure objects differ significantly from linear and area objects, the use of information modeling for transport infrastructure requires a new approach to organization of design, construction and especially for operation. Most seaports were built long ago and there is not to have the project documentation for them. It is therefore very relevant is the problem of adapting existing building and design documentation to develop models of operation. Infrastructure projects always have a large number of interconnections that are irregular and difficult to formalize into an information model. Port berthing facilities in an intensive mode interact with the courts, a water space, the cargo base and special cargo handling equipment. On the example of the design model of the seaport, we collected sufficient data for their further integration into the BIM model and the transfer of information in digital form for its repeated use at different stages of the life cycle of the seaport. The individual information schemes and elements for standardization of the design of offshore mooring structures, taking into account of turnover in object-oriented format with attribute data are offered. The model includes the necessary information on all parameters of operation of the berthing facility, planning of measures for emergency situations, standard calendar work plan, schedules for monitoring the technical condition, financial estimates for operational maintenance, repairs, etc. The activities on the automation of deformation monitoring system, calculation of structural strength of the main structural elements and control risks are additionally proposed. The transition to life-cycle contracts in the operation of marine berthing facilities is justified.

The Nigeria ports plays a vital role in socio-economic growth by being a cheap mode of conveying shipments for importation and exportation. The number of vessels coming into the Nigerian ports every year is on the average of about 4,900. A well flourishing and efficient ports and cargo management will in no doubt put a developing economy such as Nigeria in a leading pedestal with developed nations. Thus, stakeholders in container terminals are concerned about discharging containers as fast as possible, with the purpose of saving terminal costs. This study is driven to minimize the time being used up by ships in container terminal using genetic algorithm (GA) and thus attain maximum efficiency. The limited berth space in the wharf lead to berth allocation problem (BAP) and an optimal solution is required. Moreover, high berth occupancy results in congestion where vessels are queuing to be served. This leads to high turn-around time and results in bad service for the container terminal. The aim of this study is to develop and implement a genetic algorithm based model for berth allocation (i.e. GAMBA) with the view to minimize the total delay times of vessels at container terminals. A study of the operations in Apapa wharf was done with the view to understand the berth allocation process vis-à-vis the challenges therein. The relevant parameters required for berth allocation were identified and GAMBA was developed using the identified parameters. GAMBA was implemented using real life data collected from the container terminal, Apapa, Lagos, Nigeria. The results showed that increasing the quay length by 250m has a very similar outcome on the container port’s efficiency as reducing the proportion of increasing handling time by 0.0025 h/m. This revealed that the outcome on the container port’s efficiency by increasing the quayside length was the same as reducing the proportion of increasing management time. Based on these results, the optimized allocation of container storage and the automation of the handling process can be proposed as cheaper alternatives to construction and development of the containers port in relation to increasing the productivity of the port.

The vehicle is offered the body of which is made to create during the movement an aerodynamic elevating force, and is supplied with mechanical means of communication with a motionless carrying track. The distinguished feature of this vehicle is that it uses current conducting track being on high-speed sections of the track as a unit of transport system suspended to the vehicle in the function of cable-current conductor. The aim of the works creation on the basis of monorail, suspended cable-way and airtransport of essentially new type of transport combining their best properties and strengthening them: - reliability, weatherproof, opportunity of complete automation of management of process of transportations and cargo handling works; - high carrying capacity, speed and range of action without increasing capacity of bearing(carrying) ways; - meeting the high requirements on the part of ecology and profitability in an expenditure of energy carriers, because of application of various means from the electric power up to energy of natural gas; - flexibility of formation of structure of transport. The new vehicle, uses a monorail as track; its body can be made to create in it the elevating force on a principle of aerostatics and in addition it is supplied with constructive elements, to create aerodynamic elevating force during the movement. Thus the track can be made as a combination of powerful sections for an acceleration and facilitated mid-flight sites. The monorail of a transit can be supplied with current conductor, feeding power installation, and on mid-flight sections of a way it can be made, as a cable-current conductor. The power(force) installation can be made as a combination of engines of electrical draft with engines of jet draft or draft of the air screw, to change the position of a vector of draft in planes from horizontal up to vertical. The name of an offered type of transport is logically justified: "MONOJET" - IS THE VEHICLE CARRYING OUT MOVEMENT IN SPACE CLOSE TO FLIGHT, ON a UNIQUE TRAJECTORY GIVEN BY A RAIL OF THE TRACK.

Topicality. The supply chain of tomorrow will be leaner, faster and most importantly, self-orchestrated. This unprecedented pace of change will be driven by a few radical technologies that will be cautiously adopted by industry participants over the next 15 years.
 Aim and tasks. The aim of this article to determine the level of implementation of digital technologies in transport industries, identify obstacles to their wide distribution, as well as assess the immediate prospects for the use of electronic document management, web platforms, artificial intelligence, large data in the field of transport and infrastructure.
 Research results. This new era has seen several technological advances fuse, creating powerful new digital tools that will be used to dramatically reshape industries, including logistics, over the next few years. This slower rate of digital adoption brings enormous risks that, if ignored, could be potentially catastrophic for even the biggest established players in the business. There are benefits of using e-carrier to manage shipments and logistics, such as: easier planning of shipments; save time with web booking of transport; improved workflow with a document management system; direct access to statistics and reports; optimised order management and inventory overview. The purpose of bringing automation to ports and terminals is to introduce a whole new level of consistency when handling cargo, and the results are: reduced labor costs, minimization of human errors and delays, reduced carbon emissions compared to manually operated terminals.
 Conclusion. The rapid evolution of new technologies and their affordable nature is driving people to adopt them on a massive level, making their lives easier. This forces entities and their ecosystems to transform in order to improve their competitive position and sometimes even to maintain it. Digitalization will help to deliver better business results and to better control trading and operational risks in one place. Timing is, of course, another opportunity as shipping and trading companies need to be able to react much faster today than they did in the past. Cloud technology within the digitalization wave will unleash those opportunities.

Building intelligent systems has been one of the great challenges since the early days of human culture. From the second half of the 18th century, two revolutionary changes played the key role in technical development, hence in creating engineering and intelligent engineering systems. The industrial revolution was made possible through technical advances, and muscle power was replaced by machine power. The information revolution of our time, in turn, canbe characterized as the replacement of brain power by machine intelligence. The technique used to build engineering systems and replace muscle power can be termed "Hard Automation"1) and deals with industrial processes that are fixed and repetitive in nature. In hard automation, the system configuration and the operations are fixed and cannot be changed without considerable down-time and cost. It can be used, however, particularly in applications calling for fast, accurate operation, when manufacturing large batches of the same product. The "intelligent" area of automation is "Soft Automation," which involves the flexible, intelligent operation of an automated process. In flexible automation, the task is programmable and a work cell must be reconfigured quickly to accommodate a product change. It is particularly suitable for plant environments in which a variety of products is manufactured in small batches. Processes in flexible automation may have unexpected or previously unknown conditions, and would require a certain degree of "machine" intelligence to handle them.The term machine intelligence has been changing with time and is machinespecific, so intelligence in this context still remains more or less a mysterious phenomenon. Following Prof. Lotfi A. Zadeh,2) we consider a system intelligent if it has a high machine intelligence quotient (MIQ). As Prof. Zadeh stated, "MIQ is a measure of intelligence of man-made systems," and can be characterized by its well defined dimensions, such as planning, decision making, problem solving, learning reasoning, natural language understanding, speech recognition, handwriting recognition, pattern recognition, diagnostics, and execution of high level instructions.Engineering practice often involves complex systems having multiple variable and multiple parameter models, sometimes with nonlinear coupling. The conventional approaches for understanding and predicting the behavior of such systems based on analytical techniques can prove to be inadequate, even at the initial stages of setting up an appropriate mathematical model. The computational environment used in such an analytical approach is sometimes too categoric and inflexible in order to cope with the intricacy and complexity of real-world industrial systems. It turns out that, in dealing with such systems, one must face a high degree of uncertainty and tolerate great imprecision. Trying to increase precision can be very costly.In the face of the difficulties above, Prof. Zadeh proposes a different approach for Machine Intelligence. He separates Hard Computing techniques based Artificial Intelligence from Soft Computing techniques based Computational Intelligence.•Hard computing is oriented toward the analysis and design of physical processes and systems, and is characterized by precision, formality, and categorization. It is based on binary logic, crisp systems, numerical analysis, probability theory, differential equations, functional analysis, mathematical programming approximation theory, and crisp software.•Soft computing is oriented toward the analysis and design of intelligent systems. It is based on fuzzy logic, artificial neural networks, and probabilistic reasoning, including genetic algorithms, chaos theory, and parts of machine learning, and is characterized by approximation and dispositionality.In hard computing, imprecision and uncertainty are undesirable properties. In soft computing, the tolerance for imprecision and uncertainty is exploited to achieve an acceptable solution at low cost, tractability, and a high MIQ. Prof. Zadeh argues that soft rather than hard computing should be viewed as the foundation of real machine intelligence. A center has been established - the Berkeley Initiative for Soft Computing (BISC) - and he directs it at the University of California, Berkeley. BISC devotes its activities to this concept.3) Soft computing, as he explains2),•is a consortium of methodologies providing a foundation for the conception and design of intelligent systems,•is aimed at formalizing of the remarkable human ability to make rational decision in an uncertain, imprecise environment.The guiding principle of soft computing, given by Prof. Zadeh2) is: Exploit the tolerance for imprecision, uncertainty, and partial truth to achieve tractability, robustness, low solution cost, and better rapport with reality.Fuzzy logic is mainly concerned with imprecision and approximate reasoning, neurocomputing mainly with learning and curve fitting, genetic computation mainly with searching and optimization and probabilistic reasoning mainly with uncertainty and propagation of belief. The constituents of soft computing are complementary rather than competitive. Experience gained over the past decade indicates that it can be more effective to use them combined, rather than exclusively.Based on this approach, machine intelligence, including artificial intelligence and computational intelligence (soft computing techniques) is one pillar of Intelligent Engineering Systems. Hundreds of new results in this area are published in journals and international conference proceedings. One such conference, organized in Budapest, Hungary, on September 15-17, 1997, was titled'IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Engineering Systems 1997' (INES'97), sponsored by the IEEE Industrial Electronics Society, IEEE Hungary Section, Bá{a}nki Doná{a}t Polytechnic, Hungary, National Committee for Technological Development, Hungary, and in technical cooperation with the IEEE Robotics & Automation Society. It had around 100 participants from 29 countries. This special issue features papers selected from those papers presented during the conference. It should be pointed out that these papers are revised and expanded versions of those presented.The first paper discusses an intelligent control system of an automated guided vehicle used in container terminals. Container terminals, as the center of cargo transportation, play a key role in everyday cargo handling. Learning control has been applied to maintaining the vehicle's course and enabling it to stop at a designatedlocation. Speed control uses conventional control. System performance system was evaluated by simulation, and performance tests slated for a test vehicle.The second paper presents a real-time camera-based system designed for gaze tracking focused on human-computer communication. The objective was to equip computer systems with a tool that provides visual information about the user. The system detects the user's presence, then locates and tracks the face, nose and both eyes. Detection is enabled by combining image processing techniques and pattern recognition.The third paper discusses the application of soft computing techniques to solve modeling and control problems in system engineering. After the design of classical PID and fuzzy PID controllers for nonlinear systems with an approximately known dynamic model, the neural control of a SCARA robot is considered. Fuzzy control is discussed for a special class of MIMO nonlinear systems and the method of Wang generalized for such systems.The next paper describes fuzzy and neural network algorithms for word frequency prediction in document filtering. The two techniques presented are compared and an alternative neural network algoritm discussed.The fifth paper highlights the theory of common-sense knowledge in representation and reasoning. A connectionist model is proposed for common-sense knowledge representation and reasoning, and experimental results using this method presented.The next paper introduces an expert consulting system that employs software agents to manage distributed knowledge sources. These individual software agents solve users' problems either by themselves or thorough mutual cooperation.The last paper presents a methodology for creating and applying a generic manufacturing process model for mechanical parts. Based on the product model and other up-to-date approaches, the proposed model involves all possible manufacturing process variants for a cluster of manufacturing tasks. The application involves a four-level model structure and Petri net representation of manufacturing process entities. Creation and evaluation of model entities and representation of the knowledge built in the shape and manufacturing process models are emphasised. The proposed process model is applied in manufacturing process planning and production scheduling.References:1) C. W. De Silva, "Automation Intelligence," Engineering Application of Artificial Intelligence, 7-5, 471-477, (1994).2) L. A. Zadeh, "Fuzzy Logic, Neural Networks and Soft Computing," NATO Advanced Studies Institute on Soft Computing and Its Application, Antalya, Turkey, (1996).3) L. A. Zadeh, "Berkeley Initiative_in Soft Computing," IEEE Industrial Electronics Society Newsletter. 41-3, 8-10, (1994).

In this paper, an outline of NTUA’s work in the framework of project INTELLICONT is presented. We describe the current state of the air-cargo handling procedures and how the autonomous system that is under development is going to simplify these and increase the overall efficiency. Important issues and challenges regarding the system's development are discussed and a preliminary design of the novel robotic platform is given. The main tasks of this platform include the autonomous motion and locking of containers with mass exceeding one tone, avoiding at the same time obstacles and surpassing terrain discontinuities. Information regarding the selected actuators and other key electrical components, such as motor drivers and sensors are provided also. The architecture of the embedded system and the specifications of the selected Central Control Unit are described, as well as the integration of the motor drivers, sensors and other peripherals with the Robot Operating System (ROS). Further details on the development of a high accuracy localization system, which is mandatory to lock the container safely to the corresponding positions are provided also. In addition, we give details regarding the locking mechanism with integrated monitoring functionalities, an important part of the system. Simulation experiments validate the selected position controller and key system specifications are highlighted based on results. Finally, recent prototype experiments conducted to verify the localization system are presented.

The central Monte-Carlo production of the CMS experiment utilizes the WLCG infrastructure and manages daily thousands of tasks, each up to thousands of jobs. The distributed computing system is bound to sustain a certain rate of failures of various types, which are currently handled by computing operators a posteriori. Within the context of computing operations, and operation intelligence, we propose a Machine Learning technique to learn from the operators with a view to reduce the operational workload and delays. This work is in continuation of CMS work on operation intelligence to try and reach accurate predictions with Machine Learning. We present an approach to consider the log files of the workflows as regular text to leverage modern techniques from Natural Language Processing (NLP). In general, log files contain a substantial amount of text that is not human language. Therefore, different log parsing approaches are studied in order to map the log files’ words to high dimensional vectors. These vectors are then exploited as feature space to train a model that predicts the action that the operator has to take. This approach has the advantage that the information of the log files is extracted automatically and the format of the logs can be arbitrary. In this work the performance of the log file analysis with NLP is presented and compared to previous approaches.

The flight navigation equipments technology use still conventional, namely using radar, now slowly starting to switch to Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B [6]. In this study, using RTL-SDR to detect aircraft and carry out tests through the Monte Carlo alltitude method, latitude, and longitude only [3]. However, in this system there is a problem regarding the missing value in the preprocessed data results / ADS-B flow data. In handling missing values, the KNN method is the most popular, but the weakness in the KNN method, can reduce the performance[9]. So a Genetic Algorithm (GA) is proposed to optimize the k value in the KNN method. The results of this study obtained a better MSE value in the imputation process. Altitude k = 3, with MSE 128668.96, Speed k = 6, with the MSE value = 457.5201, while the k value in the Heading variable k = 61 with MSE = 752.1429. For Lattitude and Longitude, the value of k = 3, MSE 9.16E-05 and k = 2 and MSE 1.68E-05.

Wind Farm Operations and Maintenance has challenges in delivering cargo safely and efficiently and with manning in high sea states. Wind farms farther offshore further increases pressures on vessel design, technicians, safety and costs. Working within the ambit of ‘Innovate UK’ funded Wind Farm Autonomous Ship Project, Houlder Ltd have been developing the concept design of a Wind Farm Support Vessel that can operate autonomously during transit and while delivering cargo to offshore wind turbine. The aspired degree of automation is that for the vessel to be remotely operated from ashore. Vessel functions have been identified, working in conjunction with industry and project partners, who are developing vessel control and advanced autonomy, on-board health diagnostics, decision support logistics algorithms, data flow and logistics management, and cost performance analysis, as part of the project. The Concept is expected to reduce operating costs, especially fuel and crew related, while improving safety of operations. This paper will focus on the re-think, re-design and refining of vessel design that the autonomous vessel concept has accorded. The discussion will follow through the design spiral for features of spaces, stability and machinery systems, besides the innovation and integration of autonomous cargo handling solution for the wind farm O&M.

Containerisation of maritime transport and globalization. Restructuring of the logistics chain. Standardized containers which are designed to meet the particular needs of different goods turn heterogeneous cargo into homogeneous unit loads which can easily be moved and stacked. Thus for transport handling containers provide opportunities for automation and economies of scale. In the past the transport chain from sender to recipient has been characterized by a sequence of single-transit shipments with interim storage. Nowadays goods shipped in containers can be reloaded to different means of transportation and are transported to their destination under a single through-rate in less time. Planning and control of intermodal transport can be done door-to-door in an integrated full-service approach. The transformation from manual to industrialized transport handling provides opportunities for staff savings, however, it requires considerable investments in different vehicles, containers, equipment and software for operations. Customers benefit from efficiency gains in form of lower shipment prices. This article analyzes the impact of containerisation on liner shipping, harbours and transport in the hinterland as the key elements of the maritime logistics chain. The discussion outlines the topic in the context of globalisation and changing contours of the global economic map.

The article is devoted to the questions of finding ways to optimize the logistics system of postal and courier services by improving terminal complexes. It is determined that the terminal as an element of the logistics system and as part of the logistics chain forms the basic and technical requirements for the warehousing system. It is emphasized that changing consumer demands in the direction of reducing costs, increasing speed and expanding service requires a change in approaches to building a terminal system. It is established that terminals perform a significant number of functions, each of which requires consideration of such two important environmental factors as urbanization and increasing consumer demands. This requires a transition from the e-commerce model to the service center model. The article is proposed to move from the model of e-commerce to the model of the service center. Such advantages of the service model are determined : service of both business clients and consumers; availability of a sorting depot; mini fulfilment; minor automation that does not require increased implementation and maintenance costs. It is established that the planning of the terminal area is influenced by the following factors: size and geometry of the site, height difference in different parts of the territory, size and number of accepted vehicles, cargo volume for sorting and further storage, regulatory requirements of various government agencies. The advantages and disadvantages of such models of terminal organization are analyzed: the terminal with ring sorting and two-way loading; the terminal with linear sorting and one-way loading; the terminal with linear sorting and two-way loading; hexagonal terminal with ring sorting; L-shaped terminal with linear sorting and two-way loading; n-shaped terminal with linear sorting and three-way loading. Based on the proposed models, a terminal model is proposed, which will include the best structural elements of all the above models. The proposed model corresponds to the most flexible cargo handling system with double-sided loading, relatively lower sorting costs and increased capacity if necessary and a significant area for storage and assembly of shipments. The basic idea is to combine the processes of fulfilling and postal sorting in the project of one building, which reduces the processes in the supply chain and reduces the cost of construction of storage and terminal complex.

The take-off of an aircraft is one of the most dangerous flight phases, as failures and adverse environmental conditions can lead to a catastrophe. Should abnormal events occur during the roll phase, the crew or the flight computer has to make the decision if the take-off can be safely rejected and the aircraft can brake and come to a standstill on the runway, or if the take-off has to be attempted in any case.
 This decision has to be made instantaneously upon the estimate of the current state of the aircraft, using available sensor data under noise and potential failure conditions. In order to do so, at any time during the roll phase, a prediction has to be made, if the aircraft can come to a safe stop within the boundaries of the runway.
 In this paper, we formulate this decision making task as an online prognostics problem and develop a model-based architecture that allows us to perform a probabilistic prediction of the aircraft’s braking distance given the current aircraft state. We are using particle filter and Monte-Carlo based prediction algorithms. Because this task has to be performed in real-time on the on-board flight computer, computational resources are very restricted. We therefore propose several models of increasing fidelity, which have substantially different computational footprints and exhibit different levels of accuracy that can impose severe restrictions on the handling of uncertainties and on the failures that can be modeled.