Automation and intelligence are the main development directions of terminals，especially container terminals，which are the frontiers of the development of automation. The terminal layout should match the new processes of the automatic container loading and unloading solutions，and a suitable automatic solution should be selected according to the characteristics of each terminal project. This study analyzes the layout characteristics of two typical automatic container terminals and proposes two innovative solutions to summarize their layout characteristics. The results reveal that both innovative solutions can solve parts of the problems in existing typical solutions.