Design of a crane system with a curved rail for a narrow space and load sway suppression

This paper presents a new type of crane system that can be employed in a narrow space in an ordinary house for supporting nursing and housework. The crane consists of straight and curved rails that can be assembled/disassembled so that an operator is able to assemble them according to the room/corridor structure of a house. Because an operator may not hold the transported person or object (load) in touch during the transportation in a narrow space, automatic load sway suppression is required. This study presents a motion trajectory design for load sway suppression by using a simple trapezoidal velocity motion that is widely used in industry without measuring the load sway for reducing the controller implementation cost. Simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed design.