Sway Reduction on Quay-side Container Cranes Using Delayed Feedback Controller: Simulations and Experiments

Abstract

Traditionally, a container crane is modeled as a simple pendulum with either a flexible or a rigid hoisting cable, and a lumped mass at the end of the cable. However, in the case of quay-side container cranes, the actual configuration of the hoisting mechanism is significantly different; it consists typically of a set of four hoisting cables. The cables are hoisted from four different points on a trolley and are attached on the load side to four points on a spreader bar used to lift containers. A controller design based on the actual model will most likely result in a response superior to those based on simple pendulum models. In this paper, we develop a mathematical model of the actual quay-side container crane. A simplified model is then used to obtain the gain and time delay for a delayed feedback controller, which will be used for the control of payload sway oscillation. Performance of the controller is simulated on a 1/10th scale computer model of a 65 ton container crane using the full model. Simulation results are verified experimentally on a 1/10th scale model of the same container crane.