Non-linear Model Based Control for a Hydraulically Actuated Mobile Harbour Crane

Active damping of oscillations performed by the rope suspended payload becomes a more and more important feature for mobile harbour cranes characterised by their non-linear kinematic structure. This contribution presents a nonlinear control scheme for a hydraulically actuated mobile harbour crane, which is based on a multibody model of the mechanical configuration. The decentralised control structure consists of a combined feedforward and feedback control law for each crane axis and includes a compensation for the most dominant coupling between the axes due to centrifugal acceleration. By this, crane operation can be simplified and handling performance can be increased in particular for less experienced crane operators and, moreover, automatised container handling becomes an attractive feature for operating mobile harbour cranes. The efficiency of the proposed control scheme is emphasized by selected simulation results.