Ports and their logistics chains, which are demanded by the central role they play in the functioning of a globalised economy, are facing, day after day, more dynamic and demanding performance requirements and levels of efficiency, security, flexibility, adaptability and resilience, a trend that the emergence of COVID-19 has contributed to drastically accelerate.
Advances in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and a diverse constellation of technologies, such as wireless communications (5G/LTE), IoT, Edge Computing, blockchain, robotics, automation, etc., which are often grouped under the denomination of “Exponential Technologies” because their development rates are increasingly faster and accelerate simultaneously; and the irruption of 4.0 tools as digital twins, in addition to facilitating compliance with these requirements and boosting the competitiveness and sustainability of ports, are beginning to forge the pattern of the ports of tomorrow, the so-called “Smart Ports.”
In fact, the irruption of these technologies in ports and their logistics chains promises to go beyond providing incremental improvements and new capabilities, as they are called to cause disruptions in all spheres of port activity, including its rules of the game and business models; to redefine its frontiers; as well as to forge new paradigms yet to be visualised. In short, to reinvent the ports.