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645-653, 1996
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Abstract: Overhead crane systems are widely used for material transportation in many industrial
fields. However, undesired oscillation can always be found during the moving process, especially at
the end location of the transport. The swing may extend the carrying time and cause safety
problems. In order to achieve small swing angles, and also to incorporate the potential uncertainty
property of the system, a robust controller has to be developed. Here, a controller, which combines a
feedback linearization approach and a time delay control scheme, is chosen. The time delay control
is applied to complete the feedback linearization for a nonlinear system under the influence of
uncertainty. By suitable definition of system outputs, input/output de-coupling presents a direct
relationship between the system outputs and inputs. Thus, robust cancellation of the uncertainty,
and insertion of the designated dynamics can be accomplished. Encouraging control performance is
shown in the results of a computer simulation.
1. INTRODUCTION and safety, but will also make the system more
applicable to other engineering scopes.
Overhead crane systems have been widely used for
material transportation in many industrial fields, due Recently, anti-swing control for overhead crane
to their low cost, easy assembly and maintenance. systems has become one of the most popular research
However, severely nonlinear properties bring about topics. Basically, two control schemes, open-loop
undesired swings, especially at take-off and arrival. control and closed-loop control, have been
Most overhead crane systems belong to the category investigated. The open-loop control method only
of incomplete control systems, which only allow a suggests how the cart should move in order not to
limited number of inputs to control more outputs. induce oscillations at the termination point (e.g.,
Such uncontrolled oscillations cause both stability (Aspinwall, 1980; Starr, 1985; Strip, 1988; Meckel
and safety problems. This drawback strongly and Seering, 1985; Karnopp, et al., 1992)).
constrains the operational efficiency and the However, some differences exist between the ideal
application domain. Besides, an overhead crane model and the actual system, and an overhead crane
system may experience a range of parameter system has to encounter disturbances from its
variations. Different loading is the most common environment in the real world. Inaccurate modeling
condition. Therefore, a robust and delicate always induces practical control problems.
controller, which is able to diminish these Therefore, satisfactory performance may not be
unfavorable swing phenomena and manage achieved by applying these open-loop control
uncertainty problems, needs to be developed. A good strategies to an actual system. The closed-loop
control strategy will not only enhance both efficiency methods, given the control criteria, e.g., loading
64.5
646 Chi-Cheng Cheng and Cheng-Yi Chen
/ / / / / / / ~\/ / / / / / /
In order to overcome the strongly nonlinear
properties and possible uncertainty problems in the
system, feedback linearization with a time delay
control algorithm is chosen in this paper. The
feedback linearization transforms complicated
G ~mg
nonlinear systems into simplified equivalent systems
through coordinate transformation. Controller
design is thus based on familiar linear control Fig. 2. Cart-pendulum model with a variable
strategies by cancelling undesired nonlinear parts. pendulum length.
Although the method is potentially applicable to
most nonlinear systems, poor control performance system because it has a smaller number of actuators
ahvays results from uncertainties or unmodeled than the number of controlled variables.
dynamics. The time delay control utilizes state
information with a small time delay, to estimate the In order to simplify the modeling complexity, several
unknown dynamics. It has been shown (Youcef- assumptions have first to be made: (1) Plastic
Toumi and Ito, 1990) that this control scheme deformation in the system is ignored. (2) The cable
produces good disturbance rejection characteristics. is treated as a weightless rigid body. (3) The
The combination of feedback linearization and time moment of inertia of the load is ignored and the load
delay control will be developed for an overhead becomes a point mass. Therefore, the overhead
crane system to achieve a swing-free response under crane system can be simplified to a cart-pendulum
the influence of uncertainty. model with a variable pendulum length, as shown in
Fig. 2. Ul is the force exerted by the horizontal
actuator and u2 is the applied torque from a
2. DERIVATION OF THE DYNAMIC MODEL rotational actuator acting on a winch with a radius R.
The masses of the cart and the load are denoted by M
A two-dimensional overhead crane system, which
and m. xp is the horizontal displacement and 0
has the capabilities of both traversing and hoisting,
is considered in this research. Most crane systems indicates the inclination swing angle. L represents
used for loading and unloading at a dock or for the cable length and J stands for the moment of
assembly in a factory have similar structures.(Fig. 1) inertia of the winch. The kinetic energy and the
potential energy can easily be obtained as follows:
This kind of crane system has two actuators,
responsible for horizontal and vertical motions,
respectively. Nevertheless, three controlled T = 1~MYCp
"2 +~-m[(x
1 "r +/~sinO+LOcos 0) 2
The dynamic equations can therefore be derived by Time delay control (TDC), presented by Youcef-
applying the Lagrangian approach and are described Toumi and his colleagues (Youcef-Toumi and Ito,
by 1990; Youcef-Toumi and Wu, 1992), is designed for
the control of systems with unknown dynamics and
J s i n O ~ _ u . sinO disturbances. This approach uses past observation of
M P R2 - 1+ 7 u2
the system state and control input to calculate the
current control action that can quickly cancel the
msin 0J?p + (m +-~T)L = m(L0~+ gcos 0) - 1 us (3) unknown dynamics and the unexpected disturbance,
simultaneously. Although the time delay control
cos 0p + L 0 = -2/~b - g . s i n 0. sacrifices a little gain margin caused by the inserted
time delay, this method gains good immunity to
uncertainties and disturbances. Hence, the time
Define the state vector x as [xp L 0 fp L ~T and delay control technique can be used to achieve
the input vector u as [u] U2] T. The dynamic input/output linearization without knowing the exact
equations can be converted to a nonlinear state-space model dynamics. The proposed method combines
representation, i.e., systematic design of feedback linearization for
nonlinear systems with the fast convergent property
(4) of the time delay control for unmodeled dynamics.
"~61 = f 6 l +G6lU2xl
where
Consider a square nonlinear system (number of
p control inputs equal to the outputs) described by the
L following nonlinear differential equations
0
mJ.sin0(L b2+g cos &=f(x)+G(x)u
f= Q y=h(x), (5)
mMR 2( LO ~+gcos 0)
Q where x is an n 1 state vector, u=[u~ u2 ... u,,]T is
-mdsinOcos O(LO2+gcos 0) 2LO+gsinO an m x 1 control input, y is an mx 1 output of
QL L interest, and G=[g~ g2 "" g,~],f h are, nm, nl,
0 0 ml nonlinear functions of states in a smooth vector
0 0 field, respectively. Now, the system output can be
0 0 differentiated until control inputs appear.
mR 2 + J mR sin O
Q Q m
G= v (') = L~h, + ~~=l~gy
' I . I n - l h uj (6)
- m R 2 sin 0 - ( m R sin 2 0+ MR) ~i ~ f "~
Q Q
-(mR 2 + J)Lcos 0 -LRmsinOcos O Equation (6) can thus be rewritten in a matrix form
Q Q as
Q = M ( m R 2 + J ) + m J s i n 2 @.
3. CONTROL LAW L
The feedback linearization technique has been = a(x)+B(x)u. (7)
described in detail in many books on nonlinear
control (e.g. (Isidori, 1989; Slotine and Li, 1991)). It is considered that the value of a(x) in equation (7)
The central idea of feedback linearization is to at the present time t is very close to that at time t-2
algebraically transform an original nonlinear system in the past for a small time delay L,
into an equivalent model of a simpler form, and
cancel existing nonlinearities into a fully or partially - . (r)
a ( x , t ) = a ( x , t _ A) = t-.~-B(x't)t-2"ut-x. (8)
linear one, so that linear control techniques can be
applied. Although the method has systematic design Thus, the time delay control law of the input/output
procedures, an exact model of a nonlinear system is linearization can be obtained as follows
not always available, and the measurement of states
is sometimes difficult, As the result, feedback
/4 t ~. n - I t[ - Y'(r)t
- 3. + j~ "/dr - ~ + vr ] , (9)
linearization faces limitations in actual applications.
648 Chi-Cheng Cheng and Cheng-Yi Chen
4. CONTROLLER DESIGN
Y=
y,]=h(x)=Fxp
Y2
+Lsin01
L L cost~ ] (11)
a(x, w) = / cos o J
L 0 1
Since the output functions of the system have been If B(x,w), the decoupling matrix, is nonsingular,
selected, controller design using input/output then equation (15) is the standard form for
Controller Design for an Overhead Crane System 649
input/output linearization. However, conditions 4.2 Input/output linearization with time delay
exist for B(x,w) becoming invertible. They are controller
L 0, 0 ~ x]2, and w~g. Fortunately, these
conditions are always relevant to actual overhead Since system nonlinearities mainly appear in
cranes. The length of the rope, or the distance equations (13) and (17), the time delay technique is
between the winch and center of the load, can never then applied to them. To estimate the control
be zero. The swing angle of load is not expected to distribution b5 in equation (13), the swing angle of
sway to 90 , and the value of w,, the vertical the load is assumed to be small so that it can be
acceleration, is much smaller than gravity g. As a simplified to b2 =-R/(mR 2+ j ) , which is only related
result of the above analysis, the original system has to the mass of the load. Thus, considering that the
relative degree 4, and 6 states. By undergoing overheadcrane operates in known loading ranges,
dynamic extensions twice, one has relative degree 8, and the constraint of input/output linearization using
and 8 states, where the relative degree of the system time delay control is /~ >_b2/2, /~ can easily be
is equal to the number of the states. Therefore, the selected. Moreover, the constraint of input/output
system can be input/output linearized and decoupled linearization using time delay control in MIMO is
to a completely controllable form of linear system,
IIBi~-~-lll<a<l. B(x) in equation (15) is
i.e., the zero dynamics is never presented with the
estimated by supposing that the swing angle of the
system.
load is very small and the maximum length of the
In controller design for an overhead crane system, rope is known. Hence, /~ can be chosen as a
the type of controller for asymptotic output tracking constant diagonal matrix, and its diagonal elements
is adopted such that the suspended object can be are expressed as (/~11, /~22) to satisfy the above
controlled into a desired smooth trajectory. Now, let criterion. Thus the controller for input/output
the desired trajectory for tracking be [Xd, Zd ]~, and linearization using time delay control can be
define concluded as follows, and its block diagram is
depicted in Fig. 3.
tldd-----[XdZd d Xd Zd Zd Zd Z'd]T. (16)
u, (k) = u, ( k - 1) +/~' x [v, - y l 4~( k - l ) ]
~b2(k)= *b2( k - l ) +/~;) [v 2 -y24)( k - l ) ]
The tracking error, 9 , is defined as the difference
between the desired trajectory Pa and the output, ~i'I (k) = w2(k) (19)
i.e., p-/ad. The controller for input/output U2(k ) = U 2( k - 1)+/~ -1 x [-J)2 (k-1)+w, (k)]
linearization can be designed by letting equation (I 5)
u: (k )=U2 ( k )+ flu~
be equal to [v, v2 ]v. Therefore,
where fl= ( X - x p ) J / ( M R Z ) .
(17)
where ~ overhead
V , = X ~ ' ) - k , ( 2 - 2 ~ ) - k A 2 - 2 ,)-k~(2-~)--k,(x-. G )
]75=~d~')--k I (2"-G)-k~ (2-2~)-k3(2-2~)-k, (Z-Z~)
Id~vativeestimate
Combining equation (17) with the system dynamic ~y,...,y'y
equation (4), gives a stable system with the de-
coupled tracking error described by
Fig. 3. Block diagram for an overhead crane control
system using linearization and time delay
control.
.."
/~l = 95 /~2 = 93 /~3 = 94
~. = v, ~ ~. +k,9. +k293 +k395 +k.9, = 0 4.3 Trajectory design
- - Z (18)
~/5 ~--"9 6 l"/6 = 97 ]"/7 ~-- 98
,,1." To maintain small swing angles during transport,
~8 = v5 ~ ~8 +k,98 +k29, +k396 +k49~ = 0 the desired trajectory should be selected to be as
smooth as possible. Thus, the overhead crane can
650 Chi-Cheng Cheng and Cheng-Yi Chen
30
move smoothly to minimize the swing angle
especially on departure and arrival. A desired
trajectory using the time function can be established.
The desired trajectory is defined as ( X d , Z d ) , such
that the boundary conditions, "~'d=J(d=)(d = Z
(m)
X~4~=0, 2'a =Za =2"~=Z<a4~=0, have to be fulfilled. In
accordance with these conditions, Newton's
interpolation method can be used to generate the 10 [ ---Am_
ed
.near~zedtim
e _ -dalY J
difference table to find the desired time functions:
0 10 20 30
time (sec)
=1"(
126ts/ 420t6 540/7 315ts 70/9 (a)
Xa(t) - - ~ - - - - ~ )D O<_t<T
ID T~ Ts T7 TS T~ 0.06
t>_T
Za(t)=r(126t~j 420t6 540t 7 315t s 70t 9 0,04
--~-- --~
.... )L O<t<T
IL T~ T6 T7 T9 TS 0,02
t>T
(20) O 0.00 t
(rad)
where T is the final time when the overhead crane
-0.02
has reached the target point, and D and L are the
-- - - linearlzed
total distances moved in horizontal and vertical -0.04 ---,dkr---- I~ne arlz4~l ad Ikp IivQ
directions, respectively.
-0.06 "l t J
10 20 30
time (sec)
(b)
5. SIMULATION STUDIES
Fig. 4. Control performance with an actual loading
Three types of the controller, namely input/output
of 8000kg: (a) vertical trajectory of the load,
linearization, adaptive control using feedback
(b) the response of the swing angle.
linearization and estimation design (developed by
Boustany and D'Andre'a-Novel (1992)), and the
input/output linearization using time delay control the dynamics of [ and 0 experience constant
disturbances of 1 rnds z and 0.1 rad/s 2, respectively,
proposed in this paper, were applied to an overhead
crane using computer simulation. The simulation when the simulation time was between 5 and 10
basically corresponds to a medium-sized crane that seconds.
can be found in industry, and which is characterized
by All three controllers achieved good trajectory-
following performance in the X-direction for the first
M = 5000 kg m = 0-10000 kg two cases. This is not surprising, because of the
perpendicular relationship between the horizontal
J = 50 kg.m z R = 0.4 m
motion and the load weight. However, the feedback
g = 9.81 m . s -2 L = 0.5-20 m linearization approach due to the inexact
cancellation of system uncertainty corrupted and
In the third controller, the control distribution moved the suspended objected to the wrong positions
parameters were estimated as /~ = 0.0017, (Figs 4a and 5a). Although the adaptive control
/~, = 5x10 -~, /~22= 1.25. The controller design was using feedback linearization and parameter
based on the expected loading, 5000 kg. The desired estimation could correctly accomplish the task, its
trajectory moving from the starting position, (0, 0, efficiency was limited by bounded convergent rates.
10 m) to the target point, (50 m, 0, 20 m), was given Nevertheless, the feedback linearization using time
by two ninth-order time functions. During the delay control perceived the outputs and the inputs of
simulation, the Runge-Kutta method was used to the system at one time step in the past, and
solve the model equations, and a uniform step size of determined the control action that should be
0.01 second was chosen. commanded at the present time. This control
technique appeared to be superior to the other two
In order to verify the robust properties of the methods. As to the responses of the swing angle, the
controller, three cases of system uncertainty were three controllers behaved similarly, as shown in
examined. They are (1) actual loading is 8000 kg Figs 4b and 5b. It seemed that the pure input-output
which is heavier than the rated value (Fig. 4), (2) linearization in Fig. 5b achieved better results,
actual loading is 8000 kg and parameters o f f in despite the failure of the trajectory control in the Z-
equation (4) are increased by 100%, (Fig. 5), and (3) direction. Since the vibration angles were kept small
enough through the transport process, cancellation of
Controller Design for an Overhead Crane System 651
80 50
.
P
4O
60
30
X~
( mZ) 40 ~ ...,,i=.~
~nllrized+ldeptive 1 (m)
gnellrized *lime dqllmy 2o
lO
20_
o
I
0 10 20 30 lO 20 30
time (sec) time (see)
(a) (a)
0.03 2.0
- - - bne~rized
0.02 I ~ne=,,zed=daptJve
~eaflZed +~ 8 d~y
0.01 ~-
1.0
0 X-X d
* -- -- -- Itflelrize d
-- * ~ linelrized+adlplive 0.0,
-0.02 + tlnelrized+um ii de~ay
I -05 ~
-0.03 11 20 310 o
1
lO
time
2"
(sec)
3~
time (see)
(b)
Fig. 5. Control performance with an actual loading
of 8000kg and parameters o f f in equation (4)
increased by lOON: (a) vertical trajectory of I 0
,' ,i ~me l f ~zecl*=d&plive
f~' knel~,zed+time detay
?
7
disturbances were directly embedded in the system - - - I,ne=r,zea i
REFERENCES
Systems, Measurement, and Control, 107, 200- Strip, D.R. (1988). Swing-free transport of
206. suspended objects: a general treatment. IEEE
Sato, K. and Y. Sakawa (1988). Modelling and Transactions on Robotics and Automation, 5,
control of a flexible rotary crane. International 234-236.
Journal of Control, 48, 2085-2105. Youcef-Toumi, K. and O. Ito (1990). A time delay
Slotine, J-J.E. and W. Li (1991). Applied controller for systems with unknown dynamics.
Nonlinear Control, 207-275. Prentice-Hall, Journal of Dynamic Systems, Measurement,
Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey. and Control, 112, 112-133.
Starr, G.P. (1985). Swing-free transport of suspended Youcef-Toumi, K. and S.T. Wu (1992).
objects with a path-controlled robot Input/output linearization using time delay
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