Switching Logic-Based Nonlinear Feedback Control of Offshore Ship-Mounted Tower Cranes: A Disturbance Observer-Based Approach

We propose, in this paper, an observer-based nonlinear feedback controller for four degrees of freedom (4-DOF) offshore ship-mounted tower cranes, which includes a robust-type term to address the observation uncertainty, and a switching logic tuning mechanism to update the involved unknown parameter. As a typical nonlinear underactuated mechatronic system, unlike the land-fixed tower cranes, an offshore ship-mounted tower crane also suffers from persistent disturbances caused by sea waves or currents, which leads to many difficulties and challenges in the controller design of such systems. Existing offshore crane control methods require either linearizations or approximations when performing analysis; moreover, most of them are only applicable for simplified 2-DOF crane models, and the ranges of system state errors cannot be guaranteed during the overall process. Motivated by these facts, to achieve simultaneous accurate jib/trolley positioning and fast payload swings suppression against complex unknown external disturbances, in particular, a disturbance observer is first designed in this paper, based on which a novel nonlinear switching logic-based control scheme for offshore cranes with jib rotation and horizontal transportation is proposed. As far as we know, the proposed method yields the first observer-based feedback closed-loop control without simplification operations to the original 4-DOF offshore tower crane dynamics and achieves the first asymptotic stability of the closed-loop system’s equilibrium point for offshore cranes. To support the theoretical derivation, the corresponding stability analysis of the closed-loop system’s equilibrium point is implemented by Lyapunov techniques. Numerous simulation and hardware experimental results are presented to demonstrate the superior performance of the proposed method. Note to Practitioners—This paper is motivated by the issue of controlling a four- degree-of-freedom (4-DOF) offshore ship-mounted tower crane system under the effects of unknown external disturbances. In practical applications, the persistent disturbances caused by sea waves or currents can always happen and make the offshore crane operation very challenging. Moreover, it brings more difficulties in the controller design for such a system due to its nonlinear underactuated property. Existing control approaches for offshore cranes are developed based upon linearized or oversimplified crane models or require exact model knowledge, and they may not work well in the presence of harsh sea conditions. Toward this end, this paper suggests a new control approach for 4-DOF offshore tower cranes suffering from sea wave effects to achieve a satisfactory performance. The asymptotic stability of the closed-loop system’s equilibrium point is derived, implying that the accurate jib/trolley positioning and fast payload swings suppression against complex unknown external disturbances are achieved simultaneously. Preliminary physical experiments implemented on a self-built offshore tower crane hardware test bed verify the effectiveness and the robustness of the proposed observer-based control method. In the future research, we will apply the suggested control approach to industrial offshore crane systems to improve their working efficiency.