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Journal of Applied Nonlinear Dynamics
Miguel A. F. Sanjuan (editor), Albert C.J. Luo (editor)
Miguel A. F. Sanjuan (editor)

Department of Physics, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, 28933 Mostoles, Madrid, Spain

Email: miguel.sanjuan@urjc.es

Albert C.J. Luo (editor)

Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, Southern Illinois University Ed-wardsville, IL 62026-1805, USA

Fax: +1 618 650 2555 Email: aluo@siue.edu


Control of a Tower Crane with a Pragmatic Hierarchical Algorithm

Journal of Applied Nonlinear Dynamics 10(2) (2021) 197--209 | DOI:10.5890/JAND.2021.06.001

Bilal H. Abduljabbar$^{1,2}$, John Billingsley$^{1}$

$^{1}$ School of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering University of Southern Queensland, West Street, Darling Heights, Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia

$^{2}$ Department of Mechanical, College of Engineering, University of Al-Anbar, Al-Anbar, Iraq

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Abstract

Tower crane systems are commonly used at construction sites. The need to damp the swinging of the load presents a task requiring great skill for manual control. This has led earlier researchers to apply elaborate control strategies. In this paper, we propose the use of a 'pragmatic' paradigm to define a system that can move the load to the desired target with little or no swing. The essence of pragmatic control is gleaned from autopilot designs of half a century ago. The control is designed as a set of 'nested loops'. The error in an outer loop defines a demand value for the next inner loop, so for example the load position error defines a corrective velocity. In each case the demand is subjected to a limit. This is continued through each layer until the innermost loop, which might take the form of a velocity loop wrapped around a motor to give crisp velocity control. The dynamic model is derived as a state space representation. The proposed strategy was tested by MATLAB which showed that the strategy is successful and effective to control a tower crane system and suppress the load swing. Comparisons are made between the performance of this simples control strategy and that of the complex published alternatives.

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