Summary:
Road traffic management in ports and port terminals is currently a growing challenge for logistics and international trade, particularly due to the increase in the volume of goods in recent decades. As global trade has grown, some port infrastructures have struggled to expand at the same pace, creating bottlenecks and congestion at the entrances and internal roads of these facilities.
Furthermore, the lack of integration and synchronisation between the different actors in the supply chain, such as carriers, port operators, customs and local authorities, exacerbates this situation. The increase in the time it takes for goods to pass through port facilities can lead to significant economic losses, both in terms of the direct costs of delays and the negative impact on the planning of logistics operations. All of this greatly affects the quality of the service offered, causing dissatisfaction among users and customers.
In particular, one of the innovation challenges facing the Port Authority of the Bay of Algeciras (APBA) is to find innovative technological solutions to improve traffic flow in the port area, especially in those areas most prone to congestion, thereby optimising the transit of goods, passengers and users of the Port of Algeciras in general.
To this end, the APBA has collaborated with Isarsoft, a German start-up specialising in artificial vision solutions based on video recognition technology and Artificial Intelligence (AI) models. This collaboration was facilitated within the framework of the European open innovation project AspBAN (Atlantic Smart Ports Blue Acceleration Network), which facilitated the identification of innovative solutions at an international level, even outside the logistics-port sector, with which to promote the competitiveness of this industry.
The project, which will run until September 2025, has had the main objective of testing this artificial vision tool at the Port of Algeciras facilities, through the development of different use cases aimed at solving operational needs in the field of land traffic and multimodal transport.ç
The results obtained have provided insight into how this type of solution can be implemented and scaled in the specific environment of the Port of Algeciras to optimise road traffic, providing the current video management system with an additional layer of business intelligence based on advanced analytics and operational knowledge generation.
Project’s innovation:
- Apply commercial solutions based on artificial vision used in the transport sector to assess their suitability for specific port logistics use cases.
- Assess the technical feasibility of implementing a system based on artificial vision for monitoring and controlling vehicle flows at the Port of Algeciras.
- Provide real-time information on vehicle flows during Operation Paso del Estrecho (OPE) to support decision-making on the management, organisation and sizing of port spaces.
Usability/Application:
- Optimisation of port space design and use. Allows for the redesign of waiting, boarding and parking areas based on real analysis of traffic flows and occupancy, improving operational efficiency.
- Dynamic traffic and access management. Facilitates real-time decision-making to redirect vehicles or open/close access points or areas according to detected congestion, reducing bottlenecks.
- More detailed knowledge, including patterns, of road traffic behaviour at the Port of Algeciras facilities, both historically and in real time, minimising traffic congestion problems with the aim of improving the quality of service offered.
- Improved user experience. By sharing information in real time (number of vehicles at access points, passage times, occupancy), the perception of the service is improved, operational planning is improved and user stress is reduced.
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