Using Machine Vision and Hand-Motion Control to Improve Crane Operator Performance

The payload oscillation inherent to all cranes makes it challenging for human operators to manipulate payloads quickly, accurately, and safely. Manipulation difficulty is also increased by nonintuitive crane-control interfaces. This paper describes a new interface that allows operators to drive a crane by moving a hand-held device (wand or glove) freely in space. A crane-mounted camera tracks the movement of the hand-held device, the position of which is used to drive the crane. Two control architectures were investigated. The first uses a simple feedback controller, and the second uses feedback and an input shaper. Two operator studies demonstrate that hand-motion crane control is faster and safer than using a standard push-button pendent control.