Digital passive teleoperation of a gantry crane

Gantry cranes still pose a control challenge, mainly due to the problem of load swing suppression in underactuated conditions. In the teleoperation setup, the operator-master dynamics and the transmission delay complicate the overall system design. Fortunately, the framework of passivity theory offers the necessary resources to address this problem. This paper presents the design of a digital teleoperation system for a gantry crane, entirely using tools from passivity theory. Special attention is paid to the communications issue, where recently developed tools are applied, which make the control system suitable for handling internet-like communication networks with large, time-varying delays and loss of information.