Interoperability of IoT Platforms applied to the transport and logistics domain

Transport and logistics is a very complex sector that has a significant impact in the environment and energy consumption as well as in the economic activities of a city. On a strategic sector such as the port, many of the issues regarding the current shipment management process are primarily due to the lack of interoperability among systems involved in this process which generally belong to Internet of Things platforms. Typically there is a lack of coordination of the stakeholders involved on the delivery and pick up of cargo in the port. When a truck accesses the port and arrives at the port gate, no notification is given to the container terminal’s IoT platform. Moreover, trucks entering the terminal area do not have access to the terminal IoT platform, which provides the information where the container should be picked from or delivered to. As a result, truck drivers have to seek further assistance to locate the specific place within the terminal area. Whereas the truck company is aware of the truck’s location, this information is not delivered to the terminal’s IoT platform. Consequently, inefficiencies are present in the process and the time of arrival of a specific truck to the target destination remains “unpredictable”. Therefore, it is vital to address interoperability in this heterogeneous and non-optimally coordinated environment. The present study proposes an approach to address seamless interoperability of existing systems and IoT platforms (e.g. road haulier ITS, port gate systems, port authority, container terminal and container terminal gate), which are heterogeneous and currently non-interoperable between each other. The solution offers significant advantages to stakeholders (i.e. port authority, terminal owners, truck drivers, cargo owners). Major advantages are the creation of smart new services such as an appointment service, driving guidance to containers, and a low-consumption dynamic lighting. The solution is based on a framework for platform interoperability provided by the Horizon 2020 European research project INTER-IoT, and it is applied to the terrestrial delivery and collection of cargo in a pilot scenario in the port of Valencia.