Modeling and residual vibration control of a quayside container crane

This paper discusses the mathematical modeling and residual vibration control problem of a quayside container crane, which is one of the automated handling equipment for containers at a seaport. The main purpose of the quayside crane is the safe loading and un-loading of the container ships in quick time. The residual vibrations of the transported containers cause operational delays and therefore must be suppressed, which can be achieved by implementing an appropriate control strategy. Generally, the control strategies are based on a simplified model of a conventional container crane (i.e., assuming a single-rope hoisting mechanism). However, in this paper, we have derived the mathematical model of the quayside crane based on the actual (i.e., multi-rope) hoisting mechanism. An open-loop control is then applied to generate shaped trolley-drive commands to transport the containers to the desired locations while suppressing their residual vibrations. Furthermore, a closed loop control is also developed to suppress the vibrations of the containers due to initial conditions and disturbances. The validity of the proposed control laws has been demonstrated by performing simulations.