In a collaborative development by Kalmar Industries and Patrick Stevedores, the world's first automated straddle carriers will start operating at Brisbane's Fisherman Islands container terminal in the next three months.

Kalmar straddle carriers vice-president Ilkka Annala said the straddles would be unmanned, relying on radar, inertia navigation and satellite positioning technology to roam around the terminal, directed by a central management system.

Five Kalmar straddles would enter service initially, operating between ship-to-shore cranes and container stacks. Unmanned straddles could potentially handle between 200,000 and 300,000 TEUs each year at the Brisbane terminal.

"The automated straddle has a capacity equal to a conventional straddle, achieving a duty cycle equivalent to or exceeding that of a manned vehicle, and operates in the same environmental conditions as a manned vehicle. These were our initial goals and we have achieved (them) all," Mr Annala said.

Kalmar's involvement has been in developing control systems that move, brake and steer the straddles, building systems that ensure containers are placed correctly, and refining the capabilities of sensors for container detection and safety systems. Patrick has concentrated on the tasking and traffic management systems, and navigational positioning using radar, lasers and satellite positioning.

The automated terminal is a human exclusion zone, a Kalmar statement said. Reefer and road interchanges are strictly controlled, so if someone needs to monitor a reefer container, straddles cannot enter the reefer area at the same time.

The only place where humans control the straddle is the truck grid, where the machines are controlled remotely. Trucks reverse onto the grid, where the driver leaves the truck and closes a gate behind the truck. Only then can straddles enter through another gate to pick up containers.

The straddles are fitted with anti-collision lasers and bumpers. The machine stops if anything comes within a specified distance, or if it collides with anything.

Mr Annala said automating straddles was first considered in the early 1990s when Kalmar (then Valmet) straddles handling steel coils in the Netherlands were successfully automated. But it was not until 1997 that automation became a possibility for container terminals.

"We learned that, independently, Patrick had begun to explore terminal automation, focusing on navigation and traffic management. We quickly agreed to join forces to develop a fully-automated straddle carrier port," he said.