A comprehensive framework for hyperheuristic algorithms for berth allocation and scheduling at marine container terminals

Maritime transportation is the main transportation mode for the delivery of cargoes between different continents across the world. Container ships carrying valuable goods are served at marine container terminals (MCTs). Berth allocation and scheduling is one of the primary decision problems that have to be addressed by MCT operators when planning seaside operations. The berth allocation and scheduling problem (BASP) has high computational complexity and cannot be solved using exact optimization algorithms in acceptable computational time for large-scale problem instances. Therefore, many types of heuristic and metaheuristics have been proposed in the BASP literature. However, hyperheuristics still have not been explored for the BASP decision problem, despite their promising performance in other settings. Hence, this study proposes a comprehensive framework for hyperheuristic algorithms for berth allocation and scheduling at MCTs that could be further used to guide the future research in this area.