The Dubai Ports Authority (DPA) has installed a "smart rail" system, the first of its kind in the Middle East, reported the Gulf News on Thursday.
Based on digital global positioning system (DGPS), it has been introduced to facilitate the operation of the 40 rubber-tyred gantry cranes (RTG) currently in use at the Jabal Ali Terminal and ensure that container positioning within the yard can be effectively accessed automatically and immediately.
It will also facilitate the automatic steering of the RTGs as they traverse the yard en route to their next location.
Each RTG will be fitted with a DGPS antenna and given a correct signal from a base station located at the crane section. This method will ensure accuracy to within plus or minus 20 millimeter.
The Jebel Ali container yard holds some 70,000 containers transported by RTGs, which are stored in large stacks, said the paper.
The system, which has been named "smart rail" because it maps a "virtual track" that the RTGs can follow, provides "virtual rails" that match the concrete runway beams that exist in the container terminal, the paper added – Albawaba.com
