Control of the double-container overhead crane

Most previous work on crane control has concentrated on one-container dynamics. If the crane has two lifting ropes and two containers, then the productivity can be increased greatly, but the control problem of these cranes is more challenging because the dynamics are more complicated. Inspired by the passivity-based control for mechanical system, in this paper, two controllers are presented for double-container overhead cranes. In particular, based on the total mechanical energy of doublecontainer cranes, we present a proportional derivative (PD) control method and a nonlinear control method for the regulation control of double-container cranes. Numerical simulations are provided to illustrate the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed control methods.