Investigations of feed-forward techniques for anti-sway control of 3-D gantry crane system

This paper presents investigations into the development of feed-forward control schemes for anti-swaying control of a gantry crane system. A nonlinear 3-D gantry crane system is considered and the dynamic model of the system is derived using the Euler-Lagrange formulation. An unshaped bang-bang force input is used to determine the characteristic parameters of the system for design and evaluation of the feed-forward control techniques. Feed-forward control schemes based on input shaping and filtering techniques are to be examined. The proposed techniques are designed based on the properties of the system for anti-sway control. Simulation results of the response of the gantry crane system to the shaped inputs are presented in time and frequency domains. Performances of the shapers are examined in terms of swing angle reduction and time response specifications. Moreover, the robustness of the feed-forward control schemes is discussed. Finally, a comparative assessment of the proposed control techniques is presented and discussed.