FLL Innovation Project

Mission of the project

An innovative way to improve the connection & efficiently transport cargo using Hyperloop

Overview

Reduce wait time for cargo ships

Port terminals are simply overflowing and the biggest bottleneck in the global supply chain. However before we reached to this conclusion, we as a team had researched multiple stages of transportation and found that

Level of automation at warehouse and manufacturing plants are very high
Most of the delays happens at the ports and transportation hub - lot of idle time for containers

Eliminate idle time for containers

Hyperloop technology has the potential to transport goods and people at rapid speeds, greatly reducing the travel times between cities.

Our solution and prototype is using hyperloop at the port to eliminate / reduce

numbers of vehicles required to move containers from one place to another
space required to "hold" containers and
manual labor required to operate high number of cargo ships and containers

Accelerate to the future - Ultrafast delivery

In future, there are several ways a hyperloop and conveyer belt could be used to

Unload from ship and directly deliver location for the next transportation (Cargo Airport, Train)
Direct connectivity to warehouses (in different cities)
ultra-fast, on-demand deliveries of high-priority goods

Research - Manufacturer to Happy Customer

Global Mile

Manufacturers to Fulfillment Centers

First Mile

Fulfillment Centers

Middle Mile

Fulfillment Centers to Delivery Centers

Last Mile

Delivery Centers to Customers

Problem

Pit Stop Delay

“Cutting idle time at ports is a big priority and challenge,” .

.. Soren Toft, Maersk’s chief operating officer

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Reference: WSJ Article

Solution

Cargo Hyperloop

As you will see in the "solutions" section, our team has many ideas with different conveyor belt and hyperloop placements. Some ideas were

Hyperloop from the quay crane to the stacks of cargo
Hyperloop from the stacks of cargo to the trucks and entrance
Quay cranes place cargo on a conveyor belt which leads to a hyperloop and goes to the trucks and entrance
Stops in the hyperloop which are at different places such as train stations, ship ports, etc

Though these ideas were unique in their own way, there is one main thing in common: they are all efficient, safe, and effective ideas. These were all great ideas from our team, but we had to decide on one. We decided that the hyperloop will go from the quay cranes to different stops such as train terminals and other ship ports. This eliminates AGVs, yard cranes, and other small trucks. We decided on this because it increases automation and decreases human labor issues.

Prototype

Lego Model for Hyperloop Solution

We have prepared a modem using Lego pieces to demonstrate our solution. it has following components

Crane to unload containers from a ship
Model of hyperloop using electromagnetic train to carry the containers across the port
Conveyer belt to load / unload containers
various models of train, truck and airplane as mode of transportation of cargo containers

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