Anti-sway system for boom cranes based on an optimal control approach

For the operation of boom cranes a significant high level of experience is needed to achieve a large amount of handled containers. Therefore, automation systems with anti-sway abilities for boom cranes were developed to increase the handling rate especially for inexperienced crane operators. In the paper, an optimal control approach is presented as an alternative to feedback control systems. After deriving the nonlinear dynamic model, the anti-sway problem is formulated as a nonlinear constrained optimal control problem. The numerical solution method for this optimal control problem is presented. The results are illustrated at measurements for the harbour mobile crane LIEBHERR LHM400.