Slew control methods for tower cranes

Abstract: Today, tower cranes are in widespread use on construction sites all around the world. An important issue that arises when operating these cranes is the oscillatory behavior that occurs during payload transportation, which can have severe effects on safety as well as accuracy of payload delivery. Due to the nonlinear nature of the rotating crane motion, controlling these oscillations is a complex task. Additionally, the lack of sensors on many cranes that are in use today requires extra effort to design effective control strategies. While current research has made good progress on the subject of tower crane control, less attention has been given to the practical implications of applying these control methods to industrial tower cranes. This thesis provides a comparison of some of the best possible tower crane control strategies that can be achieved using modern control concepts. A performance analysis as well as a more practical comparison through a real-time tower crane simulator will give a deeper insight into the theoretical and practical limitations of these methods.