A model predictive scheduling strategy for coordinated inland vessel navigation and bridge operation

This paper presents the design of a model predictive scheduling strategy to address the inland waterborne transport (IWT) problem considering bridges that must open to enable vessel passage. The main contribution is the formulation of a control-oriented model of the problem, including propositional logic expressions that characterize system behavior and their conversion into (in)equality constraints. The resulting model is embedded into a predictive scheduling approach to determine bridge opening timetables and vessel passage times in a coordinated manner. The effectiveness of the strategy is demonstrated on a realistic case study based on the Rhine-Alpine corridor.