A Novel Integrated Anti-sway System for Rolls-Royce Marine Shipboard Cranes

The proposed project will address the development of a novel anti-sway control architecture for different Rolls-Royce marine shipboard cranes, offering stability, safety, and efficiency during lifting, handling, transportation, and other manipulation. Fir st, some systems in related literature are only designed to reduce pendulation, while others only focus on minimizing wave impact on the payload by reducing dynamic forces. However, to the best of our knowledge, to date, no integrated solutions to prevent both these problems have been presented. From a technical point of view, the proposed system will offer working efficiency and safety in marine operations. It will reduce the crane payload swing in the roll and pitch directions of the ship using a modifi ed variable bang-bang controller. Meanwhile, the system could minimize wave impact on the payload by reducing the dynamic forces in the hoist wire using sensor feedback and hydraulic damper. As far as we are aware, there are no similar crane control appro aches available to date in Norway, nor in Europe or in the US to provide the anti-sway control functions dealing with the pendulation of long hoist cable and effects from the sea waves at the same time. All proposed control strategy will not only be demo nstrated in the simulated environment but will also be implemented as a real physical prototype for controlling Rolls-Royce shipboard cranes. Given its interdisciplinary nature, this project has to combine expertise from complementary disciplines: robotic s, artificial intelligence, computer science, and the maritime industry. All research results will not only affect maritime application but are also expected to lead to fundamentally new control systems based on dynamic control, and multifunctional system s in the robotics and automation field. As a conclusion, the project will therefore be a unique and it will strengthen the maritime cluster in the region and nationally.