Control Strategy for Automatic Gantry Crane Systems: A Practical and Intelligent Approach

The use of gantry crane systems for transporting payload is very common in building constructions. However, moving the payload using the crane is not an easy task especially when strict specifications on the swing angle and on the transfer time need to be satisfied. Various attempts in controlling gantry cranes system based on open- loop and closed-loop control systems were proposed. However, most of the proposed controllers were designed based on the model and parameter of the crane system. In general, modeling and parameter identifications are troublesome and time consuming task. To overcome this problem, in this paper, a practical and intelligent control method for automatic gantry crane is introduced and evaluated experimentally. The results show that the proposed method is not only effective for controlling the crane but also robust to parameter variation.