Manipulation with Tower Cranes Exhibiting Double-Pendulum Oscillations

The payload oscillation inherent to all cranes makes it challenging for human operators to manipulate pay-loads quickly, accurately, and safely. Under certain conditions, the problem is compounded when the payload creates a double-pendulum effect. This paper presents an input-shaping control method for suppressing double-pendulum payload oscillations. Local and teleoperation experiments performed on a portable tower crane are used to verify the effectiveness of the method. Data from these experiments show that operators performed manipulation tasks faster and safer when input shaping was utilized to reduce payload sway. Furthermore, the teleoperation delays did not degrade the input shaping effectiveness.