Increasing Crane Payload Swing by Shaping Human Operator Commands

Cranes are commonly used to swing wrecking balls that demolish unwanted buildings and other structures. The crane operator moves the machine back and forth to increase the wrecking ball swing and then attempts to direct the swinging ball at the desired point of impact. By increasing the oscillation, the wrecking ball has more damaging force at impact. The rudimentary control interface, the sluggish dynamic response of the crane, and the limited field of view make this a challenging problem for the human operator. Although shaping human operator commands has traditionally been used to reduce oscillation, a related design process can be used to develop oscillation-amplifying commands. This paper presents such a command-shaping method that aids the operator in maximizing the swing of a crane payload. The effectiveness of the command shapers is verified through numerous simulations and experiments.