Efficient control of a 3D overhead crane with simultaneous payload hoisting and wind disturbance: design, simulation and experiment A.M. Abdullahi a,b , Z. Mohamed a,⇑ , H. Selamat a , H.R. Pota c , M.S. Zainal Abidin a , S.M. Fasih a a School of Electrical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Johor, Malaysia b Department of Mechatronics Engineering, Bayero Universiti, Kano, Nigeria c School of Engineering and Information Technology, The University of New South Wales, Australian Defence Force Academy, Canberra, Australia article info Article history: Received 3 December 2019 Received in revised form 23 February 2020 Accepted 10 April 2020 Keywords: Adaptive command shaping Experiment Overhead crane Payload hoisting Wind disturbance abstract This paper proposes a new control scheme for a 3-dimensional (3D) overhead crane having simultaneous payload hoisting and persistent wind disturbance. Control of the 3D crane system under those effects is highly challenging as it results in a high unwanted payload sway and inaccurate payload positioning. The proposed control structure which combines a new adaptive command shaping technique designed based on output signals and an inte- gral sliding mode (ISM) control provides a precise crane positioning and low payload sway. The two independent controllers are designed such that they can practically be combined and implemented without affecting the overall stability of the closed-loop system. To test the effectiveness of the proposed method, simulations and experiments on a laboratory overhead crane are carried out under various conditions with different payload masses, various cable lengths, payload hoisting and external wind disturbance. Under all operating conditions, by comparing with an ISM control, the combined controller gives smoother and more satisfactory transient responses with two to four-fold reductions in the overall pay- load sway. In addition, the controller provides substantial reductions in the overall chatter- ing of the control signal and sliding manifold which resulted in smoother control signals and system responses. Ó 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction An overhead crane is widely used in factories and seaports for transportation, loading and unloading of large and heavy loaded containers. To increase productivity, the crane is required to perform its operations as fast as possible with a higher load positioning accuracy. In practice, payload hoisting is an essential crane operation for payload transportation. However, as cable length changes, the crane dynamics including the natural frequency and damping ratio change during the payload hoisting operation. In addition, when operating in an open space, the crane is exposed to external wind disturbance which significantly increases the payload sways. These unwanted motions affect the payload’s positioning precision and thus decreases its overall performance [1]. The crane control challenges increase dramatically for a three dimensional (3D) crane under simultaneous effects of both, payload hoisting and persistent wind disturbance. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ymssp.2020.106893 0888-3270/Ó 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. ⇑ Corresponding author. E-mail address: zahar@fke.utm.my (Z. Mohamed). Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing 145 (2020) 106893 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ymssp