Integrating ship movement scheduling and tug assignment within a canal harbor

In this paper we address the in-port ship scheduling and tug assignment problem. This problem aims to determine a schedule of ship movements, and their escorting tugs, within a canal harbor. We formulate the problem as a Boolean satisfiability problem. In particular, we deal with canal-harbors, as this kind of harbors present strict constraints, e.g., on safety distance. We consider the Port of Venice, a medium size Italian harbor, as a case study