Autonomous Mobile Crane System Considering Obstacle Recognition and Optimal Path Planning.

The purpose of this paper is to present a method for establishing an autonomous mobile crane system which takes into account obstacle recognition and path planning by off-line, and suppression of sway for the transfer object. The system has three different parts: a visual system, a planning system and a control system. In the visual system, an environment map is generated by the Slid-Ray Projection method using a CCD image sensor and a laser-line marker. In the planning system, the obtained environment map is used to derive an optimal transfer path such as a minimum distance path or a minimum energy cost path from the start to the goal position. The path is generated through the use of a path auto generation algorithm using a Branch and Bound method. In the control system, an optimal regulator system is used to achieve position control and the suppression of sway for the transfer object. Finally, the validity of the proposed method is confirmed by simulations and experiments.