Manufacturing line/Port equipment/Rail-mounted gantry crane
Autonomous · Port equipment

Rail-mounted gantry crane

The yard's backbone: twelve rows wide, five high, on rails.

Phase 5 · 2031+Concept design
Moves / hour
60
sustained · 64 at the 56 s cycle
Per lift
2 × 20 ft
Gross weight
≈ 450 t
Metal content
≈ 95%
I · Blueprint
Side elevation, live systems
CANTILEVER 18 mCANTILEVER 18 mSPAN · 12 ROWS + LANES AT THE LEGS≈ 24 mOVERALL12345+11-OVER-5 CLEARANCE LINETruckhandover laneRailKnee bracesWalkwayAC010203040506070809101112
VIEW A–A · PORTAL ALONG THE RAILSBUFFER TO BUFFER 24 mGirder, end-onPortal legUpper tieSill beamEqualiserGantry motorBuffer4 wheels per corner, all driven ·16 × 37 kW geared motorsSECTION C–C · E-HOUSE & FEEDTransformerVFDs, regenerativeSupercapacitorsCable reelBusbar & collector6.6 kV via cable reel or busbarA 5 kWh bank catches everylowering; surplus goes backto the block’s other cranesSECTION B–B · TROLLEY & SPREADERTrolley railTrolley drive, 4 × 22 kWHoist drumHoist motor 1,000 kW, brakeReeving sheavesHeadblockSpreader motors, 4 × 5.5 kWTelescopic armTwin-lift centre locksTwin 20 ft boxesTWIN 2 × 20 FT SHOWNTelescopes 20 / 40 ft · twistlocks turn 90°
01Lidar gates at both cantileversStructure
02Portal legsStructure
03Sill beams (end-on) — see View A–AStructure
04Main girderStructure
05Cantilevers — truck lanes outside the legsStructure
06Trolley — underhung, 4 × 22 kW drivesHandling
07Hoist ropes & headblock — 90 m/min loadedHandling
08Twin-lift spreader — 2 × 20 ft or 1 × 40 ftHandling
09E-house — regenerative drives & 5 kWh supercapacitorsPower
10Cable reelPower
11Busbar & collector armPower
12Rail bogies — 16 wheels, 16 geared motorsDrive
II · Power & drivetrain

Fixed rails, fixed power, maximum uptime.

Running on rails means a constant cable feed and no batteries to swap. A 5 kWh supercapacitor bank catches every lowering and hands it to the next lift.

Trolley hoist machinery — rotating view
On the crab trolley one 1,000 kW hoist motor drives a single grooved drum through a brake and gearbox; four ropes drop to the headblock and telescopic spreader as it lowers. Trolley wheel motors ride the girder rails; below, the cable reel and a gantry wheel drive on the rail.
01Hoist motor — 1,000 kW, regenerative, 90 m/min loaded, 180 empty
02Brake disc & twin-output gearbox — 45:1
03Hoist drum — 1.2 m, grooved, 24 rpm loaded
04Ropes, headblock & telescopic spreader — 50 t, 20/40 ft
05Crab trolley — 4 wheels, 4 × 22 kW drives, 120 m/min
06Trolley drive motor — on the girder rail
07Cable reel — medium-voltage feed and fibre, 6.6 kV
08Gantry wheel drive — 16 × 37 kW geared, 240 m/min on rails
Gantry wheel & geared motor
Wheels4 per corner, 16 in all, all driven
WheelØ 0.8 m forged steel, flanged
Geared motors16 × 37 kW, 16:1
Gantry speed240 m / min
Wheel load≤ 37 t per wheel
Naked drivetrain — energy to motion
III · How it is put together

Trucked in knocked down, erected on the block.

Bogies, sill beams, legs and girder sections arrive by road and go up in that order; the trolley, E-house and ropes follow. The crane is then load-tested and commissioned on its own block, beside live operations.

Truck-delivered pieces start at the rails: bogies first, sill beams on top.
Four legs rise on the sill beams and are tied across the top.
The girder is lifted in sections, spliced, and run out over both lanes.
The trolley hangs under the girder; power and ropes reach the spreader.
Test weights lifted, then the crane maps its stack and truck lanes.
I
Rails, bogies and sill beams
II
Portal legs and upper ties
III
Main girder and cantilevers
IV
Trolley, E-house, reel and ropes
V
Load test and block commissioning
IV · Specification

Concept specification.

Design specification for the autonomous rail-mounted gantry crane.

Span
12 rows + 18 m cantilevers
Stacking
1-over-5
Safe working load
50 t
Containers per lift
2 × 20 ft or 1 × 40 ft
Moves per hour
60 sustained · 64 at the 56 s cycle
Gross weight
≈ 450 t
Metal content
≈ 95% steel
Power
6.6 kV cable reel + 5 kWh supercapacitors
Consumption
≈ 120 kWh / hr at 60 moves / hr
Gantry
240 m / min · 16 × 37 kW geared
Hoist drive
1 × 1,000 kW
Hoist speed
90 m/min loaded · 180 m/min empty
Trolley
120 m / min · 4 × 22 kW
Cycle time
≈ 56 s per move
Installed power
≈ 1.7 MW
Crew
0 · no cab
Onboard compute
Two AI modules see the stack and the lane; a certified controller holds the safe envelope
Modules2 AI modules (stack zone; truck handover zone) + 1 certified safety controller
CPU32 cores (2 × 16) + 4 lockstep real-time cores per module
AI throughput10,000 TOPS total (2 × 5,000, INT8 / FP4 sparse)
Memory2 × 128 GB LPDDR6, 600 GB/s per module
Power draw200 W compute; ≈ 0.35 kW with 14 cameras and 4 lidars — 0.3% of the crane’s ≈ 120 kW average draw
Process node2 nm-class SoC; safety controller on a mature 16 nm node, 15-year supply. Compute is a line-replaceable unit, swapped at mid-life of the crane’s 25–30 years
RedundancyEvery sensor is wired to both modules. Module 1 is primary for the stack and hot standby for the truck handover zone; module 2 is primary for the handover zone and hot standby for the stack. Either one alone runs the crane at reduced speed; with both lost, the safety controller finishes the move at creep speed and parks, and the block’s other RMG takes the queue.
SafetyThe SIL 3 controller has its own sensors: absolute encoders on hoist, trolley and gantry, load cells in the headblock, limit switches at every end of travel, and safety-rated lidar gates at both cantilevers. A software fault can never drive the crane outside its certified safe envelope.
Sensors14 cameras on automotive Ethernet through camera aggregation switches, 4 lidars over the stack, position encoders on hoist, trolley and gantry, load cells
LinkFibre in the cable reel; plan from The Brain each second, trajectory corrected on the crane every 25 ms, drive current loops closed every 1 ms
A rail-mounted crane moves on a fixed path. Both modules see every sensor; each runs its own zone and holds the other’s state warm. Commands pass from the machine agent through the certified safety channel to the drives, and no path goes around it. A software fault can never drive the crane outside its certified safe envelope. The yard plan, stack positions and truck arrivals come from The Brain’s shared data model.
Today vs IC
Operation, rate and power: today’s automated stacking cranes beside the IC design
Today · automated stacking craneIC design
OperationAutomatic inside the stack; remote operators take over at the truck handover for the final landingNo operator. The crane lands every box at the truck handover itself, with the lane watched by its own lidar gates
SpreaderSingle box is the norm; twin 2 × 20 ft on 65 t cranesTwin 2 × 20 ft or 1 × 40 ft on every crane, 50 t
Moves per hour≈ 20–30 per crane from a 2–3 min cycle, lower with reshuffles60 sustained, 64 at the 56 s cycle; the stack is pre-sorted by The Brain so reshuffles are rare
SpeedsHoist 30–45 m/min loaded, 60–90 empty; trolley and gantry 120–150 m/min; the fastest yard cranes gantry at 270–300 m/minHoist 90 m/min loaded, 180 empty; trolley 120 m/min; gantry 240 m/min
PowerGrid by cable reel or busbar; ten cranes running unsynchronised save ≈ 30% by sharing lowering energy6.6 kV cable reel; a 5 kWh supercapacitor bank on each crane catches every lowering; ≈ 2.0 kWh per move
The IC column is the design shown on this page. Sources for the Today column are listed in BUILD_NOTES.md.
Runs on The Brain
Every movement of this machine is planned by The Brain’s orchestration layer, mirrored in the port’s digital twin, and re-planned the moment reality drifts.
See how it works →
Continue
Rubber-tired gantry crane →← Ship-to-shore crane