TEC CONTAINER carried out last week the pilot test of its SMART UNLASHING SYSTEM (SUS) Project in the port of Sagunto.
The demonstration was successfully carried out at the INTERSAGUNTO container terminal, located in the port of Sagunto, managed by the Port Authority of Valencia.
For the pilot test, a stack of 20-foot containers with semi-automatic twistlocks was available. These containers were placed on the quay edge under a Ship to Shore (STS) crane, from which hung a spreader with two baskets, one on each side. One of them supported the structure of the robot that carried out the automatic uncrating operations.
After performing a large number of operations, it was found that the robot was able to successfully unlock the twistlocks. The robot autonomously located the twistlocks to be unlocked thanks to its integrated AI layer, subsequently capturing them and finally unlocking them automatically. The artificial vision on which the robot’s operation is based is capable of operating in any weather and visibility conditions, including nighttime darkness.
Also present at the demonstration were the various project facilitators, who were able to observe first-hand the success of the developed system and the expectations for improvement in order for the project to reach a fully commercial LRT.
This pilot test in a real environment has allowed the project to reach a state of technological maturity of TRL 7 as set out in the Ports 4.0 program.
The Ports 4.0 capital fund is the corporate open innovation model adopted by Puertos del Estado and the Spanish Port Authorities to attract, support and facilitate the application of talent and entrepreneurship to the Spanish public and private port-logistics sector in the context of the 4th industrial revolution.
The main objective of the Fund is to actively promote and incorporate disruptive or incremental innovation as an element of competitiveness, efficiency, sustainability, safety and security in the Spanish port-logistics sector, both public and private, to facilitate its transition to the 4.0 economy.
