Tracking and anti-sway control for boom cranes

This paper presents an anti-sway and tracking control for harbor mobile cranes. The control objective is the sway-free transportation of the crane's load taking the commands of the crane operator into account. Based on the mathematical model linearizing and stabilizing control laws for the slewing and luffing motion are derived using the input/output linearization approach. The operator's commands are smoothened online by a trajectory generator accounting for input and state constraints. The resulting optimal control problem is solved using the model predictive control approach. The efficiency of the control concept is illustrated with experiments on an industrial harbor mobile crane.