Ports are a great example of heterogeneous information hubs. Multiple stakeholders operate inside and outside them with different motivations and businesses. Although document and data interchange is already in place through Port Community Systems (PCS), the interchange is limited to official documentation and services of the Port Authority, such as custom declarations, import/export of cargo, and other formal documents. However, an effective integration of operational data is far from optimal in most ports, and especially so in medium or small ports, where budget is limited and IT services usually is outsourced.
In contrast, the available operational data (resources tracking, container status, vessel operations, surface or berth available, air/water quality measurements,...) is constantly increasing and technology is getting inexpensive and widely available. However, the application of such systems is still single-entity centric, since the information is not shared, keeping the real potential of the Internet of Things (IoT) and Industry 4.0 hidden. The same holds for geographic areas surrounding ports, where Smart Cities integrate various data systems and provide valuable services to citizens and authorities.
PIXEL will enable a two-way collaboration of ports, multimodal transport agents and cities for optimal use of internal and external resources, sustainable economic growth and environmental impact mitigation, towards the Ports of the Future. PIXEL will leverage technological enablers to voluntary exchange data among ports and stakeholders, thus ensuring a measurable benefit in this process. The main outcome of this technology will be efficient use of resources in ports, sustainable development and green growth of ports and surrounding cities/regions.
Built on top of the state-of-the art interoperability technologies, PIXEL will centralise data from the different information silos where internal and external stakeholders store their operational information.
The PIXEL project will focus on the following set of specific research and innovation objectives: Enable the IoT-based connection of port resources, transport agents and city sensor network. A novel ICT based communication infrastructure is proposed to enable the integration of data produced by devices, sensors and systems into a full-fledged operational data hub operated by all actors (internal and external) involved in port operations. Achieve an automatic aggregation, homogenization and semantic annotation of multi-source heterogeneous data from different internal and external actors. As part of the IT solution, the project will provide a methodology and tools for unifying the data coming from heterogeneous, multi-tenant sources. Develop an operational management dashboard to enable a quicker, more accurate and indepth knowledge of port operations. The Dashboard will support computing of indicators and multi-role views to enable better support to decisionmaking and optimisation of port/city specific needs. Model and simulate port-operations processes for automated optimisation. A structured, formalized, consistent and useful modelling will be undergone over port-operations processes to parameterize both the environmental impact caused by them and the process itself in pursuit of finding optimal resource consumption Develop guidelines for mitigating possible environmental and health effects of port activities and develop evidence-based, standardized and cost-effective procedures for environmental monitoring in port areas. Based on identified environmental and health impacts of port operations, the project will develop appropriate mitigation strategies. In addition, the temporal and spatial resolution of monitoring/sampling/measuring points and the integration, statistical analysis and visualization of the obtained data in a GIS environment will be addressed. The PIXEL results will contribute to the following impacts as follows: Reduction of impact on climate change and the environment of port activities.The Port Environmental Index (PEI) will help in assessing and monitoring the overall environmental impact of ports and bring awareness on how different port activities affect the environment. In addition, PEI will enable inter-port comparisons with respect to environmental performance, as well as a clearer and concise environmental reporting. Reduction of operational and infrastructural costs.The PIXEL approach will be similar to the strategy performed with Port Community System (PCS), which has proved its validity; but instead of focusing on electronic document interchanges, PIXEL will focus on the sharing and interchange of device and sensor data, by integrating existing PCS/PMS (Port Management System) and IoT Platforms. Improvement of logistics efficiency.The overall efficiency will be increased in the ports where PIXEL work as operational data hub. Service and data interoperability and exchange among stakeholders will enable the adoption of new procedures and processes which will clearly impact on the whole logistics efficiency. Better integration of the port in the surrounding socio-economic area, including city-port relations and the smart urban development of Port Cities.The PIXEL approach will include the participation of cities and regional governments in the operational data exchange to improve the indicators in both sides. PIXEL will look for the cooperation of port and city management and operational bodies by establishing a win-win relationship where all parts will improve their businesses by sharing operational information. Large scale adoption of the PIXEL solution and approach.One on the key principles in PIXEL will be the specification and design of the solution and methodology to enable a rapid large-scale adoption in all the European -and global- ports, with special focus on small and medium ports. PIXEL will be devoted to generalization of concepts and will seek for new collaborations in external ports. Develop predictive algorithms. Predictive algorithms will be developed devoted to selected port-operative process that will be modelled.Develop a methodology for quantifying, validating, interpreting and integrating all environmental impacts of port activities into a single metric called the Port Environmental Index (PEI). The Port Environmental Index (PEI) will integrate all the relevant environmental aspects of port operations into a single metric framework.