Internet of things for smart ports: Technologies and challenges

TLDR

The Internet of Things is driving a technological revolution in smart ports, with widespread deployment of automated sensing systems across global ports and a growing emphasis on their role in operations. This paper aims to identify the key requirements and ideas for port sensing solutions, focusing on the challenges of calibrating and testing distributed sensors on major equipment such as quayside cranes, AGVs, and yard cranes. The authors describe a smart‑port architecture that integrates sensing systems, outlines communication standards, and presents implementation examples, including structural health monitoring. The study concludes by outlining future research opportunities in the IoT era for smart ports.

Abstract

Nowadays, the Internet of Things (IoT) can be considered an important technological revolution related to smart cities, smart homes, smart factories and smart ports implementations. As the presence of smart sensing systems in ports becomes a reality, different operation areas are working today in automatic mode. Examples of challenging projects related to smart ports in the IoT era can be found from Europe to Asia, to Australia, and to North America; in all of these new architecture implementations, sensing technologies play a key role. This paper highlights the main requirements and the key ideas for each ports, sensing solution and also the challenges related to the calibration and testing of distributed sensing systems associated with the main equipment that compose the world largest ports, such as quayside cranes, automated guided vehicles for container handling and yard cranes. Details of the architecture and operations and sensing systems for smart ports are described. Communication standards for smart ports are discussed, and smart ports implementation examples regarding structural health monitoring are considered. Conclusions and future research opportunities in the IoT era are addressed in the final section of the paper.