PySeidon - A Data-Driven Maritime Port Simulation Framework

Abstract

Due to a continuous increase in the amount of goods transported via water in the world, ports have become places of high maritime vessel traffic density. Because of this, the complexity of ports as systems has increased. Ports are pressured to constantly invest and to improve policies to increase the ports’ efficiency while maintaining a high level of safety and robustness. Proposed policies can be tested using simulation in a cost effective and safe way, but there is a lack of freely available, open-source harbour simulators for research and policy testing. In this paper, we present PySeidon, an open-source, modular, and generic port simulation framework written in Python. A proof-of-concept model of the Port of Rotterdam has been developed in PySeidon. We demonstrate the usefulness of this framework by performing scenario testing and comparing normal and anomalous agent behavior as well as two tugboat company policies with the model of the Port of Rotterdam.