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On October 11th, TRUNK.TECH's fleet of unmanned container trucks (also known as ICT intelligent tractors) officially commenced 24-hour uninterrupted regular operation at the Ningbo Zhoushan Port's Yongzhou Container Terminal. This not only marks the industry's first achievement in truly unmanned deep intermingling under all-weather conditions in a real port operation scenario, demonstrating leading technical strength, but also further confirms the immense value of TRUNK.TECH's Autonomous Driving Solutions of Smart Port in terms of extensive promotion and application. The solution has received genuine and positive affirmation from customers. A new batch of 15 unmanned container trucks is being accelerated in development and deployment, which will continue to use technological power to better and more quickly assist in the construction of Ningbo Zhoushan Port's first fully automated container terminal.
Ningbo-Zhoushan Port is a world super large port with the largest cargo throughput for 14 consecutive years and the third largest container throughput globally. It is also one of the earliest ports to start the transformation towards automation and intelligence. In 2020, TRUNK.TECH partnered with Ningbo Zhoushan Port Yongzhou Container Terminal Co., Ltd. to officially launch the unmanned truck project, continuously and steadily advancing the construction of a fully automated terminal with the highest safety and technical standards.
In December 2022, the project achieved its first unmanned real-ship operation without a safety officer, and in late March of this year, it achieved all-weather, all-ship unmanned operation. In April, it carried out the first two-way nighttime real-ship unmanned operation. After multiple precise adjustments and performance optimizations, the preliminary unmanned real-ship operation tests have completed 90 ship tests, totaling 23,000 TEUs of operations, with an average operational efficiency of 3.0 moves per hour, which has verified the reliability and stability of TRUNK.TECH's unmanned driving technology and products.
TRUNK.TECH's unmanned container trucks are equipped with highly intelligent leading L4-level full unmanned intermingling capabilities. They are versatile experts in smart port operations, offering advantages of all-weather safety and stability, full-process unmanned intermingling, and fully automated efficient operations. The core of this technology is TRUNK.TECH's independently developed and controllable "AiTrucker" L4 autonomous driving hardware and software system. It is based on a multi-sensor fusion scheme primarily using "lidar + vision sensors" and is equipped with the self-developed "Trunk ICC" high-performance intelligent computing center . Combined with cutting-edge BEV + Transformer deep learning technology, the unmanned container trucks have 360-degree seamless intelligent perception, centimeter-level high-precision intelligent positioning, and intelligent decision-making and control capabilities in various complex scenarios. They also have leading functions such as automated mapping, online pose estimation, and automatic calibration (to solve the impact of strong vibrations on trucks), supporting the efficient and large-scale deployment and operation of unmanned container trucks, truly achieving plug-and-play and flexible operation.
In response to the deep intermingling operation scenario at Ningbo Zhoushan Port's Yongzhou Terminal, TRUNK.TECH has created a unique "multi-traffic participant intermingling game algorithm", effectively eliminating the uncertainty brought by complex traffic flows and human driver behavior. Even under night conditions, it can achieve safe and smooth passage for unmanned container trucks at busy intersections with mixed traffic of external container trucks, manned internal container trucks, pedestrians, other port operation vehicles, and social vehicles without traffic signal command. This supports full-process automated operations, laying a solid technical foundation for the transformation of traditional terminals to automated and intelligent terminals. With the official deployment of unmanned container trucks into all-weather, truly unmanned regular operations, a new batch of 15 unmanned container trucks is accelerating intelligent transformation and will be put into use in the near future. This will create higher operational efficiency and more stable production quality for Yongzhou Terminal, playing a core role in achieving the transformation to automation and intelligence.
Smart Ports, TRUNK.TECH Leads the Way. TRUNK.TECH will continue to provide professional, efficient, and comprehensive service with the philosophy and support to deepen cooperation with Ningbo Zhoushan Port, collaborate on innovation, and create a first-class smart port "Yongzhou Plan". This effort will help Ningbo Zhoushan Port build a world-class strong port and lead the world in the intelligent and green upgrade of smart ports!
