The Port of Duisburg (Duisport), the world’s largest inland port, located near the confluence of Germany’s Rhine and Ruhr rivers, has developed what it calls a Rivergate, through which the ID of each container being loaded on, or unloaded from, a vessel is digitally recorded and compared with the ship’s loading list within seconds. The system also records the condition of each container, including the integrity of the customs seal, as it is handled.
Vitronic, which creates machine vision systems for the logistics and other industries, developed the system using high-resolution 12K cameras that the port tested on two cranes. The test indicated a recognition rate of almost 100%.
As a container passes the crane bridge, the system records the condition of the loading unit in high-resolution images. Several specially developed algorithms work in the background, making the data immediately available to the port’s crane management system and terminal operation system.
Rivergate will initially be used on a crane at the Duisburg Trimodal Terminal (D3T) at logport I in Duisburg-Rheinhausen and on a crane at the GWW terminal at logport II in Duisburg-Hochfeld. The camera systems will enable efficient and transparent condition documentation and recording in real time, even at night and in poor weather conditions.
