Skew control of a quay container crane

In this paper, the skew control of the load (container) in the quay crane used in the dockside of a container terminal is investigated. The mathematical model of the 3-dimensional (3D) motions of the load is first derived. The container hooked to a spreader is suspended by four ropes in air. When the container is accelerated by the trolley or is disturbed by winds, it will make a rotational motion (trim, list, and skew) as well as a sway motion in the vertical plane. In such a case, the position of the container becomes difficult to control accurately due to the rotational motion even with the sway motion under control. This paper proposes an input shaping technique for the skew control based on the 3D dynamics of the container. The adopted skew control system uses four electric motors to vary the length of the four ropes individually. Simulation results show the effectiveness of the proposed system in controlling the skew motion.