Control of Cooperative-Transportation Dynamics in Twin-Lift Cranes Suspending a Liquid Container

Bulky and heavy liquid containers may need to be transported by multiple cranes. Unfortunately, the interaction between swing effects from the multiple suspension cables and fluid sloshing in the container may corrupt efficiency and safety of the cooperative operation. Although significant work has been devoted to understanding the swing dynamics of industrial cranes and sloshing dynamics in liquid containers, less effort has been directed at the interaction between swing and sloshing dynamics in multiple cranes transporting a liquid container. A dynamic model of the motion of twin cranes carrying a liquid container has been derived. The complicated interaction between twin-lift swing and fluid sloshing has been captured by the analytical model. In addition, a novel control method has been proposed to reduce coupled oscillations. Numerous experiments have been performed to validate the effectiveness of the dynamic model and oscillation-control method.