Mechatronics 63 (2019) 102284

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Mechatronics
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/mechatronics

Partially saturated coupling-based control for underactuated overhead

cranes with experimental verification☆
Shengzeng Zhang, Xiongxiong He∗, Qiang Chen, Zhengyang Zhu
College of Information Engineering, Zhejiang University of Technology, Hangzhou 310023, China

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Keywords: This paper presents a partially saturated coupling-based controller for underactuated overhead cranes. A new
Overhead cranes storage function characterized with a desired inertia matrix and potential energy function is constructed, which
Underactuated mechanical systems is especially quadratic in a composite state vector, and subsequently, a nonlinear controller is designed by en-
Nonlinear control
forcing the coupled-dissipation inequality. Particularly, a composite signal is fabricated to augment the internal
Partial saturation
coupling between the trolley movement and the payload sway, thus drastically increasing the damping of the
Passivity
LaSalle’s invariance principle control system. The proposed controller is simple and very robust to different/uncertain cable lengths. Besides,
the hyperbolic tangent function is adopted so that the proposed controller guarantees a soft trolley motion. In
the frame of the Lyapunov theory, LaSalle’s invariance principle is applied to illustrate the asymptotical stability.
Simulation and experimental results are presented to verify the effectiveness of the control system.

1. Introduction
Crane systems contribute a lot in industry, where safe and economi-
cal constraints for this manipulation demand a fast and accurate trans-
fer of suspended loads. The overhead crane is lightly-damped so that
the trolley motion will result in unwanted oscillations, which make po-
sitioning time-consuming and even present a safety risk sometimes. For
this reason, a fully automated crane operation with effective oscillation
suppression can be extremely valuable. In the last decades, authors have
pertained to the control of underactuated systems, where there are fewer
control inputs than that of the number of degrees of freedoms(DOF), in-
cluding cranes [1–4], underactuated robot/vehicle systems [5–7] and
underactuated rotational-translational actuator system [8,9]. Note that
it is difficult to evaluate the nonlinear behavior of the uncontrolled dy-
namics with traditional analysis techniques.
The wide range of the crane control can be mainly grouped into
open-loop control and feedback control. As regards to the open-loop
operation, approaches based on input shaping [10,11], optimal control
[12,13], trajectory planning [14,15] and gain scheduling [16,17] ana-
lyze some control problems of crane systems, in which the oscillations
are suppressed in an anticipatory manner. Although effective at reduc-
ing the load oscillation in real-time, the proper operation requires a
zero initial sway and insignificant external disturbances. As opposed
to the open-loop operation, the feedback mechanisms of the closed-
loop controllers require sensing of the payload during the load transfer.
Crane control systems making use of partial feedback linearization are
conducted in [18,19], while these control methods fall short on han-
dling model uncertainties. To attain robustness enhancement, many re-
searchers turn to the sliding mode control [20–22], which offers a good
capability to achieve high tracking and anti-swing performance in the
presence of disturbances. However, the resulting control laws are com-
plicated and sensitive to system parameters. Particularly, a family of
nonlinear control was derived by injecting additional damping terms in
[23–30]. More precisely, the control stabilized the equilibrium through
energy shaping in [23–25], where the control objective is achieved via
improved passivity. The study of interconnection and damping assign-
ment passivity based control was involved to improve the coupling ef-
fect between the trolley and the payload in [26]. With the Lyapunov
technique, a composite signal containing the swing angle was designed
to increase the damping of the control system during crane motion in
[27]. Different coupling-based solutions were implemented to alter the
dynamical characteristics in [28,29]. An adaptive control strategy was
applied to address the variable cable length by extending the coupling
control in [30]. More advanced approaches, such as intelligent control
approaches [31,32] and finite-time anti-sway control [33,34], were used
to ensure swing-free and precise transportation.
Despite great efforts on the crane control, problems remain. In many
cases, the design technique does not consider different/uncertain cable
lengths, which influence the damping feature of the closed-loop system
seriously. Moreover, when a desired position in the distance is issued
to the controller, the error signal may be too large to drive the trol-
ley within a safe speed. Given all these, a passivity-based approach is

☆
This paper was recommended for publication by Associate Editor Prof. Bijan Shirinzadeh.
∗
Corresponding author.
E-mail address: hxx@zjut.edu.cn (X. He).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mechatronics.2019.102284
Received 18 March 2019; Received in revised form 13 August 2019; Accepted 2 October 2019
Available online 10 October 2019
0957-4158/© 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
S. Zhang, X. He and Q. Chen et al. Mechatronics 63 (2019) 102284

with f denoting the actuating motor force and fr representing the friction
force described as [24,25,27,29]
𝑥̇
𝑓𝑟 = 𝑓𝑟0 tanh + 𝑘𝑟 |𝑥̇ |𝑥̇ (4)
𝜌

where fr0 , kr and 𝜌 denote friction-related parameters. As the dominant

disturbance, the nonlinear friction fr is neglected at feedback control
design but counteracted by feedforward compensation.
More compactly, the dynamic Eqs. (1) and (2) can be expressed as

𝑴 (𝒒 )𝒒̈ + 𝑪 (𝒒 , 𝒒̇ )𝒒̇ + 𝑮(𝒒 ) = 𝑼 (5)

𝑇
where 𝒒 = [𝑥, 𝜃] is the vector of generalized coordinates; 𝑴 (𝒒 ) ∈ ℝ2×2
is the inertia matrix; 𝑪 (𝒒 , 𝒒̇ ) ∈ ℝ2×2 is the Centrifugal-Coriolis matrix,
𝑮(𝒒 ) ∈ ℝ2×1 is the gravity vector and 𝑼 ∈ ℝ2×1 denotes the control vec-
tor, so that
Fig. 1. Model of 2-DOF overhead crane. [ ] [ ]
𝑚𝑥 + 𝑚 𝑚𝑙cos 𝜃 0 ̇ 𝜃
−𝑚𝑙𝜃sin
𝑴 (𝒒 ) = , 𝑪 ( 𝒒 , ̇
𝒒 ) =
𝑚𝑙cos 𝜃 𝑚𝑙2 0 0
proposed, which consists of constructing a new storage function char- [ ]𝑇 [ ]𝑇
acterized by desired damping properties and designing a simple nonlin- 𝑮 (𝒒 ) = 0 𝑚𝑔𝑙sin 𝜃 ,𝐔 = 𝑢 0
ear controller by enforcing the coupled-dissipation inequality. The Lya-
It is well known that for all 𝜺 ∈ ℝ2×1 ,
punov technique and LaSalle’s invariance principle are used to verify
{ }
the stability of the closed-loop system. Simulations and experiments are 𝜺𝑇 𝑴 ̇ (𝒒 ) − 2𝑪 (𝒒 , 𝒒̇ ) 𝜺 = 0 (6)
conducted to evaluate the beneficial effects of the proposed controller.
and it satisfies
The results indicate the proposed method behaves well over different
travel distances, cable lengths and external disturbances and provides 𝜕𝑃 (𝒒 )
𝑮 (𝒒 ) = (7)
better performance than an SMC method and a nonlinear controller. 𝜕𝒒
The main contributions are listed as follows: where P(q) is the potential energy of the system, shown as
1. Characterized with a desired inertia matrix and potential energy 𝑃 (𝒒 ) = 𝑚𝑔𝑙(1 − cos 𝜃) (8)
function, a new storage function which is especially quadratic in
a composite state vector yields a nonlinear controller, thus intro- The control objectives are composed of bringing the payload to a
ducing a coupled-dissipation signal to provide substantial reduc- desired position 𝑥𝑑 ∈ ℝ and reducing the load oscillations, i.e.
tion of load oscillations. lim 𝑥(𝑡) = 𝑥𝑑 , lim 𝜃(𝑡) = 0 (9)
𝑡→∞ 𝑡→∞
2. Due to its simple structure and independence of the cable length,
the proposed controller is easy to implement and robust to dif- For the crane system, the standard assumptions are made: 1) the
ferent/uncertain cable lengths. payload is a material point. 2) the cable is a mass-less and rigid link. 3)
3. The proposed controller is extended by the hyperbolic tangent the swing angle confines to a reasonable range [26–28,30],
function to prevent the error signal from overdriving the trolley, 𝜋 𝜋
− < 𝜃(𝑡) < (10)
thus ensuring a soft trolley motion. 2 2
Before proceeding with the control design, consider the storage func-
The following section presents a brief synopsis of the crane dynam-
tion E(t) as the total energy of the system
ics and the passivity of the open-loop system. Section 3 presents an
overview of the coupled-dissipation signal followed by a detailed anal- 1 𝑇
𝐸(𝑡) = 𝒒̇ 𝑴 (𝒒 )𝒒̇ + 𝑃 (𝒒 ) (11)
ysis of the storage function construction and the controller design, and 2
some remarks are discussed. In Section 4, the stability of the closed- and using Eqs. (5), (6) and (7), the time derivative of E(t) is calculated
loop system is explained. Section 5 contains simulation and experimen- as
tal data used to demonstrate the superior performance of the proposed
scheme. In Section 6, some conclusions are drawn. 𝐸̇ (𝑡) = 𝒒̇ 𝑇 𝑼 = 𝑥̇ 𝑢 (12)

which shows the open-loop system is strictly passive.

2. Nonlinear model and passivity preliminaries
Considering the model of a 2-DOF overhead crane shown in Fig. 1,
the payload motion can be stated by the differential equations [27]
̈
(𝑚𝑥 + 𝑚)𝑥̈ + 𝑚𝑙𝜃cos 𝜃 − 𝑚𝑙𝜃̇ 2 sin 𝜃 = 𝑢 (1)
𝑚𝑙2 𝜃̈ + 𝑚𝑙𝑥̈ cos 𝜃 + 𝑚𝑔𝑙sin 𝜃 = 0 (2)
wherein mx and m are the trolley and payload mass respectively; l rep-
resents the length of the suspension cable; g stands for the acceleration
due to gravity; the trolley displacement is described by x(t); the swing
angle is labeled as 𝜃(t); u is the resultant force applied to the trolley,
which appears as
𝑢 = 𝑓 − 𝑓𝑟 (3)
However, the passivity property of the crane system is by the com-
posite form of the input and the trolley velocity, which means the actu-
ated trolley motion damps out the system energy alone. And in practi-
cal implementations, the value of the cable length is different/uncertain,
which is the major factor influencing the payload sway. Also, if the final
trolley position is far from the current position, the initial error signal
will be so large that it may cause the actuator to be saturated and even
damaged. In general, for a closed-loop control system, when feedback
makes full use of the control variables, the feedback becomes much more
effective in improving transit performance. In the next section, the total
energy function will be exploited from a damping injection perspective.
3. Proposed algorithm
Consequently, a new storage function with desired damping proper-
ties is constructed, which facilitates the nonlinear control design.
S. Zhang, X. He and Q. Chen et al. Mechatronics 63 (2019) 102284

3.1. Coupled-dissipation signal with the desired inertia matrix Md (q) and the potential energy function
Pd (q) defined as
Reconsidering Eq. (11), if one applies the storage function as the [ ]
𝑚𝑥 + 𝑚 𝑚𝑙cos 𝜃
total energy of the system, the passivity of the control system does not 𝑴 𝑑 (𝒒 ) =
𝑚𝑙cos 𝜃 𝑚𝑙 + 𝜆𝑎 𝑙(𝑚𝑥 + 𝑚 sin 𝜃)
2 2
include any additional damping to the sway angle. Motivated by the
desire to increase the damping, a coupled-dissipation signal is provided [ ]
as 𝑃𝑑 (𝒒 ) = 𝑚𝑙 + 𝜆𝑎 (𝑚𝑥 + 𝑚) 𝑔 (1 − cos 𝜃)

𝜒 = 𝑥 + 𝜆𝑙 𝜙(𝜃) + 𝜆𝑎 𝜑(𝜃) (13) Based on (25), a constructive storage function quadratic in the com-
[ ]
̇ 𝜃), 0 𝑇 is proposed to fur-
posite state vector 𝝊̇ = 𝒒̇ + 𝝊̇ 𝜙 with 𝝊̇ 𝜙 = 𝜆𝑙 𝜙(
where 𝜆l and 𝜆a are positive control gains, and 𝜙(𝜃) and 𝜑(𝜃) are addi-
ther add the damping, so that
tional dissipation terms to be determined.
Accordingly, the energy of the control system is damped out along 1 𝑇
𝐸𝑙 = 𝝊̇ 𝑴 𝑑 (𝒒 )𝝊̇ + 𝑃𝑑 (𝒒 ) (26)
the generalized velocity signal 2
̇ 𝜃) + 𝜆𝑎 𝜑̇ (𝜃)
𝜒̇ = 𝑥̇ + 𝜆𝑙 𝜙( (14) then the time derivative of El is calculated as
( )
1 ̇
To achieve the dual objectives of (9), an error signal is correspond- 𝐸̇ 𝑙 = 𝝊̇ 𝑇 𝑴 𝑑 𝝊̈ + 𝑴 ̇ 𝜃
𝝊̇ + 𝒒̇ 𝑇 𝑮 + 𝜆𝑎 (𝑚𝑥 + 𝑚)𝑔 𝜃sin
ingly introduced 2 𝑑
( )
1 ̇
𝑒𝜒 = 𝜒 − 𝑥𝑑 (15) = 𝝊̇ 𝑇 𝑴 𝝊̈ + 𝑴 𝝊̇ + 𝒒̇ 𝑇 𝑮 + 𝐸̇ 𝑎
2
( )
1 ̇
In this case, the closed-loop performance including the transit and = 𝝊̇ 𝑇 𝑼 − 𝑮 − 𝑪 𝒒̇ + 𝑴 𝝊̈ 𝜙 + 𝑴 𝝊̇ + 𝒒̇ 𝑇 𝑮 + 𝐸̇ 𝑎
2
residual angle and the settling time is expected to be drastically im- [ ] [ ]
= 𝜒̇ 𝑢 + 𝜆𝑙 (𝑚𝑥 + 𝑚)𝜙( ̈ 𝜃) + 𝜆𝑙 𝑚𝑙 + 𝜆𝑎 (𝑚𝑥 + 𝑚) 𝜃cos ̇ ̈ 𝜃)
𝜃 𝜙( (27)
proved by a simple nonlinear feedback depending on the coupled-
dissipation signal.
where Eqs. (6), (7), (16), 𝝊̇ 𝑇 𝑮 = 𝒒̇ 𝑇 𝑮 and 𝑪 𝝊̇ = 𝑪 𝒒̇ are used.
To formulate the stabilization problem, the following condition must
3.2. Storage function construction and control design
be met
[ ]
Next, an additional energy storage function Ea is constructed so that ̇
𝜆𝑙 𝑚𝑙 + 𝜆𝑎 (𝑚𝑥 + 𝑚) 𝜃cos ̈ 𝜃) ≤ 0
𝜃 𝜙( (28)
it causes the passivity of the system response to the additional damping
term 𝜑̇ (𝜃). Recognizing Eq. (12) represents a damping-in-actuator oscil- which holds if it is set to
latory manner, one may write the additional energy function Ea from ̈ 𝜃) = −𝜃cos
𝜙( ̇ 𝜃 (29)
the condition
At this point, the coupled-dissipation signal is determined as
𝐸̇ 𝑎 = 𝜆𝑎 𝜑̇ (𝜃)𝑢 (16)
𝑡
To provide insight into the nonlinearity between the sway angle 𝜃 𝜒 = 𝑥 − 𝜆𝑙 sin 𝜃(𝜏)d𝑡 − 𝜆𝑎 sin 𝜃 (30)
∫0
and the input u, a transformation action is implemented. Solving for 𝑥̈ ,
Eq. (2) can be rewritten as and Eq. (27) suggests to consider the simple nonlinear feedback
( ) ( )
𝑥̈ = − 𝑙𝜃̈ + 𝑔 sin 𝜃 sec 𝜃 (17) ̇
𝑢 = −𝑘𝑝 tanh 𝑒𝜒 − 𝑘𝑑 𝜒̇ + 𝜆𝑙 (𝑚𝑥 + 𝑚)𝜃cos 𝜃 (31)

and inserting Eq. (17) into Eq. (1) results in where kp and kd are positive control gains.
̇
Given zero initial values, namely, 𝑥(0) = 0, 𝑥̇ (0) = 0, 𝜃(0) = 0, 𝜃(0) =0
𝑚𝑙(𝜃̈ cos 𝜃 − 𝜃 sin 𝜃) − (𝑚𝑥 + 𝑚)(𝑙𝜃̈ + 𝑔 sin 𝜃)sec 𝜃 = 𝑢
̇2 (18)
⇒ 𝑒𝜒 = −𝑥𝑑 , the boundedness of the initial control effort is apparent be-
Substitution of Eq. (18) into Eq. (16) yields cause of the saturated boundedness of the hyperbolic tangent function,
[ ] i.e.
𝐸𝑎 = 𝜆𝑎 𝜑̇ (𝜃) 𝑚𝑙(𝜃̈ cos 𝜃 − 𝜃̇ 2 sin 𝜃) − (𝑚𝑥 + 𝑚)(𝑙𝜃̈ + 𝑔 sin 𝜃)sec 𝜃
̇ (19)
|𝑢(0)| = 𝑘𝑝 | tanh(𝑥𝑑 )| ≤ 𝑘𝑝 min{|𝑥𝑑 |, 1} (32)
Choosing
̇
𝜑̇ (𝜃) = −𝜃cos 𝜃 (20) which implies, when the desired location xd is far, the control scheme
causes the trolley responding with a bounded value to achieve a soft
it can be obtained that trolley start. Additionally, the control efforts in transit can also be re-
( ) ( )
𝐸̇ 𝑎 = 𝜆𝑎 (𝑚𝑥 + 𝑚) 𝑙𝜃̈ + 𝑔 sin 𝜃 𝜃̇ − 𝜆𝑎 𝑚𝑙 𝜃̈ cos 𝜃 − 𝜃̇ 2 sin 𝜃 𝜃cos
̇ 𝜃 (21) duced by the presented controller, which will be demonstrated by both
simulation and experimental results provided in Section 5.
Integrating the last expression of 𝐸̇ 𝑎 in Eq. (21) from zero to t, one It should be noted that, distinguished from the traditional strategies
has dependent merely on position control, the trolley responds to a coupled-
[ ]
1 ̇2 1
𝐸𝑎 = 𝜆𝑎 (𝑚𝑥 + 𝑚) 𝑙𝜃 + 𝑔 (1 − cos 𝜃) − 𝜆𝑎 𝑚𝑙𝜃̇ 2 cos2 𝜃 (22) dissipation signal involving the payload sway, which provides sufficient
2 2 damping in the control system. The block diagram of the closed-loop
To construct a positive definite analysis of Ea , Eq. (22) is rearranged dynamics resulting from Eq. (31) is depicted in Fig. 2.
as
1 ( ) Remark 1. Note that the presented approach has a similar structure
𝐸𝑎 = 𝜆 𝑚 + 𝑚sin2 𝜃 𝑙𝜃̇ 2 + 𝜆𝑎 (𝑚𝑥 + 𝑚)𝑔 (1 − cos 𝜃) (23)
2 𝑎 𝑥 with the traditional proportional integral derivative (PID) control, so
̇ = (0, 0). one might select kp and kd in the same way as the PID control. The
which is nonnegtive and takes the zero value when (𝜃, 𝜃)
parameters 𝜆l and 𝜆a provide extra flexibility to tune the response of
In the light of Eqs. (11) and (22), a desired energy function is given
the control system, where bigger values increase the damping but at the
by
cost of increasing the settling time.
𝐸𝑑 = 𝐸 + 𝐸𝑎 (24)
Remark 2. Such an analysis presents a systematic approach that may be
which can be written in a quadratic form suitable for underactuated mechanical systems of similar structure with
1 𝑇 a 2-DOF overhead crane model, such as boom cranes, rotary cranes,
𝐸𝑑 = 𝒒̇ 𝑴 𝑑 (𝒒 )𝒒̇ + 𝑃𝑑 (𝒒 ) (25)
2 crane systems with double-pendulum and so on.
S. Zhang, X. He and Q. Chen et al. Mechatronics 63 (2019) 102284

Fig. 2. Block diagram of the proposed control system.

4. Stability analysis With the small angle approximation, Eq. (2) can be reduced to a
second-order oscillation damped system(see also [10–12,26–28,30])
In this section, utilizing LaSalle’s invariance principle, the following
𝑙𝜃̈ + 𝑥̈ + 𝑔 sin 𝜃 = 0 (48)
theorem is concluded.
which indicates
Theorem 1. The suggested controller given by Eq. (31) can regulate the 𝑡
1
trolley to the desired position xd while simultaneously eliminating the payload sin 𝜃(𝜏)d𝑡 = − (𝑙𝜃̇ + 𝑥̇ ) (49)
∫0 𝑔
oscillations, that is
( ) Eventually, from Eqs. (39), (46), (47) and (49), one arrives at
lim 𝑥, 𝑥̇ , 𝜃, 𝜃̇ = (𝑥𝑑 , 0, 0, 0) (33)
𝑡→∞ 𝑥 = 𝑥𝑑 (50)
Proof. Consider the following Lyapunov candidate function Based on Eqs. (39), (45), (46) and (50), the largest invariant set Ω
𝑉 (𝑡) = 𝐸𝑙 + 𝑘𝑝 ln cosh(𝑒𝜒 ) (34) contains only the endpoint of interest. Using LaSalle’s invariance prin-
ciple, the asymptotic stability is proven. It is important to note that the
From Eqs. (27) and (31), the time derivative of V(t) is derived as payload will always come to rest at the desired position xd when the
[ ]
𝑉̇ (𝑡) = −𝑘𝑑 𝜒̇ 2 − 𝜆𝑙 𝑚𝑙 + 𝜆𝑎 (𝑚 + 𝑚𝑥 ) 𝜃̇ 2 cos2 𝜃 ≤ 0 (35) control objective (33) is achieved, since the horizontal displacement of
the payload is 𝑥(𝑡) + 𝑙 sin 𝜃(𝑡). □
which yields
𝑉 (𝑡) ≤ 𝑉 (0) ⇒ 𝑉 (𝑡) ∈ ∞ (36) 5. Simulation and experimental verification

It is obvious that V(t) is always non-increasing, implying To confirm the enhancement of the presented controller, the re-
𝑡 sponse of the crane system is simulated and implemented on a
̇ 𝑥, 𝑥̇ , 𝜃,
𝑒𝜒 , 𝜒, 𝜒, ̇ sin 𝜃(𝜏)d𝑡, 𝑢 ∈ ∞ (37)
∫0 laboratory-size overhead crane.
and by LaSalle’s invariance principle, the solutions of the closed-loop 5.1. Simulation verification
system will converge to the largest invariant set denoted as Ω, contained
in a compact set Γ of all points such that 𝑉̇ (𝑡) = 0. The crane plant used in the simulation is considered with the param-
Clearly from Eq. (35) in Ω, eters 𝑚𝑥 = 1.7 kg, 𝑚 = 1 kg, 𝑙 = 1 m and 𝑔 = 9.806 m/s2 . The initial value
̇
𝜒̇ = 𝑥̇ − 𝜆𝑙 sin 𝜃 − 𝜆𝑎 𝜃cos 𝜃=0 (38) ̇
of the variables is chosen as [𝑥(0), 𝑥̇ (0), 𝜃(0), 𝜃(0)] = (0, 0, 0, 0), and the
friction effect is not considered in the simulation.
To determine whether a particular gain combination yields desired
𝜃̇ = 0 (39)
results, the trolley response is tested as the control gains are systemati-
which further implies cally varied. The gain combination of 𝜆𝑎 = 3, 𝜆𝑙 = 6, 𝑘𝑝 = 10 and 𝑘𝑑 = 13
for the proposed controller is throughout the simulations and experi-
𝑥̇ − 𝜆𝑙 sin 𝜃 = 0 (40)
ments.
As a direct consequence of Eqs. (39) and (40), it appears For the first simulation, the crane is commanded to three desired
positions 0.6 m, 5 m and 10 m from 0 m. The second simulation is con-
𝜃̈ = 0 (41)
ducted over a range of cable lengths 0.2 m, 2 m and 5 m. For the last
simulation, impulsive disturbances with the same amplitude of 1.5 deg
𝑥̈ = 0 (42) but in the opposite direction are introduced to the payload at time 8 s
and 9 s respectively and sinusoid disturbances with an amplitude of
Inserting Eqs. (39), (41) and (42) into Eqs. (1) and (2) results in
1 deg are applied between 12 s and 13 s. For the last two cases, the
sin 𝜃 = 0 (43) desired location is set to 1 m.
The response of the crane to different position commands is shown
in Fig. 3. This verification process confirms the control system behaves
𝑢=0 (44)
well over a range of desired positions. This is desirable because, for
With Eqs. (10), (40) and (43) in mind, it reveals traditional crane control, a change in the desired position will cause
the control gains readjusted, which is difficult and time-consuming. As
𝜃=0 (45)
shown in Fig. 4, the control system again meets the requirements and
shows insensitiveness to different/uncertain cable lengths. It is bene-
𝑥̇ = 0 (46) ficial because the cable length is different in various transfer tasks and
even not available sometimes. The disturbance rejection capabilities are
In the sequel, it remains to analyze the behavior of x. Collecting
demonstrated in Fig. 5, where the disruptive oscillations are damped out
Eqs. (15), (31), (38), (39) and (44) produces
by a small time duration. This is a great property since the effect of en-
𝑡
𝑥 − 𝑥𝑑 = 𝜆𝑙 sin 𝜃(𝜏)dt (47) vironmental disturbances, such as wind, must be necessarily considered
∫0 in practice.
S. Zhang, X. He and Q. Chen et al. Mechatronics 63 (2019) 102284

Fig. 3. Simulation results for the proposed controller with different desired po-
Fig. 5. Simulation results for the proposed controller with external distur-
sitions (solid line: xd = 0.6 m; dashed line: xd = 5 m; dash-dotted line: xd = 10 m).
bances.

Fig. 6. Experimental test setup.

Fig. 4. Simulation results for the proposed controller with different cable
lengths (solid line: l = 0.2 m; dashed line: l = 2 m; dash-dotted line: l = 5 m).

5.2. Experimental verification

The proposed controller in Eq. (31) has been tested on a laboratory-

size overhead crane (Fig. 6). The experiments have the same parameters
as the simulation and the trolley is commanded to the desired position
𝑥𝑑 = 0.6 m. The friction compensation is accomplished through repeated
experimental verification, where the friction parameters in Eq. (4) are
identified as 𝑓𝑟0 = 1.5, 𝜌 = 0.01 and 𝑘𝑟 = 1.8. For the experiment plat-
form, the trolley displacement is measured by the encoder (6000 PPR)
embedded within the AC servo motor and the load swing is captured
by the encoder (1000 PPR) fixed below the trolley. The velocity of the
trolley and the cable angle are estimated through on-line derivation af-
ter low-pass filters. The control algorithm runs in the environment of
Code Composer Studio under Windows XP and is implemented in the
programmable control board DSP2821 capable of commanding motion
with high sophistication. The control period is set as 5 ms for guaran-
teeing the good real-time ability.
Fig. 7. Experimental results for different controllers (solid line: the proposed
In this subsection, two different groups are addressed to verify the
controller (31); dash-dotted line: the SMC method [20]; dashed line: the EEMB
performance of the proposed control strategy. In the first group, the controller [23]).
high performance of the proposed control is compared with that of two
S. Zhang, X. He and Q. Chen et al.
Fig. 8. Experimental results for the proposed controller (31) with different cable
lengths (solid line: l = 0.7 m; dashed line: l = 1 m).
Fig. 9. Experimental results for the SMC controller [20] with different cable
lengths (solid line: l = 0.7 m; dashed line: l = 1 m).
Fig. 10. Experimental results for the EEMB controller [23] with different cable
lengths (solid line: l = 0.7 m; dashed line: l = 1 m).
Mechatronics 63 (2019) 102284
Fig. 11. Experimental results for the proposed controller (31) with external
disturbances.
Fig. 12. Experimental results for the SMC controller [20] with external distur-
bances.
existing controllers. In the second group, to assess the robustness of the
proposed controller, a process of experiments are conducted with a cable
length variation and external disturbances.
5.2.1. Comparison with other algorithms
To confirm the enhancement, the proposed method is compared with
the SMC method [20] and the end-effector motion-based (EEMB) con-
troller [23]. The SMC method [20] is presented as
( )
𝑚𝑥 + 𝑚 sin2 𝜃 𝑙 ( 𝛼21 𝑔 )
𝐹2 = ̇
𝑘𝑠 sgn(𝑠) − 𝜆11 𝑥̇ − 𝜆21 𝜃+
𝑙 − 𝛼21 𝑙
( )
− 𝑚 sin 𝜃 𝑔 cos 𝜃 + 𝑙𝜃̇ 2
(51)
where the sliding surface is defined as 𝑠 = 𝑥̇ + 𝜆11 (𝑥 − 𝑥𝑑 ) + 𝛼21 𝜃̇ + 𝜆21 𝜃
with the control gains 𝜆11 = 0.6, 𝜆21 = −1.5, 𝛼21 = 0.2, 𝑘𝑠 = −6. Here,
tanh (5s) is used to replace sgn(s) to avoid chattering. For brevity, the
expression for the EEMB controller [23] is precluded here and the effec-
tive controller gains are 𝑘𝑝 = 8, 𝑘𝑑 = 10 and 𝑘𝑒 = 2.6.
It is observed that the good positioning capability of these controllers
is affirmed in Fig. 7, where the cart was positioned to within 5 mm of the
set point in reasonable time, 4.92 s for the proposed method, 5.86 s for
S. Zhang, X. He and Q. Chen et al.
Fig. 13. Experimental results for the EEMB controller [23] with external dis-
turbances.
the SMC method, 5.01 s for the EEMB method and the residual oscilla-
tion amplitudes are all kept less than 0.1 deg except the one of 0.27 deg
by the EEMB controller. In contrast, the proposed method exhibits better
effectiveness in suppressing the oscillations with the maximum ampli-
tude of 3.06 deg than that of the SMC method with 5.12 deg and the
EEMB method with 3.33 deg.
5.2.2. Robustness testing
Next, the robustness of the presented method to various disturbances
is illustrated, including a cable length variation and external distur-
bances. In the first case, the experiment is conducted with a differ-
ent value of the cable length. For this experiment, the cable length is
changed to 0.7 m, and the nominal parameter is still 1 m for the SMC
method. In the second case, the performance of the control system with
external disturbances is evaluated, where a disruptive angle is intention-
ally applied to the payload. For both cases, experiments are conducted
without any change in the total control gain.
The response of these methods to a different cable length is exhib-
ited in the experimental results of Figs. 8–10. In contrast, there is no
significant difference between both cases in Fig. 8, which illustrates a
change in the cable length will not badly affect the proposed system.
Comparing the responses with different cable lengths in Figs. 9 and 10,
obvious residential oscillations are observed.
The typical response of the crane to external disturbances is shown
in Figs. 11–13, where a disruptive angle with the amplitude of about
2.9 deg is induced at the end of the trolley motion and the trolley was
reliably returned to the desired position despite the disturbances. In con-
trast, the proposed method damped out the disruptive oscillations in a
smaller time duration of 2.12 s than that of the SMC method in 3.09 s
and the EEMB method in 2.67 s.
6. Conclusion
In this paper, a partially saturated nonlinear control is presented in
light of a successful Lyapunov function analysis. In particular, a cou-
pled dissipation term is constructed to provide sufficient damping in the
control system, thus drastically improving the transit performance. The
proposed controller has a simpler structure than most available closed-
loop methods and contains no cable length term, which makes it easy
to implement and very robust to different/uncertain cable lengths. Be-
sides, a saturated function is introduced to ensure a soft trolley mo-
tion. The stability of the closed-loop system is rigorously guaranteed
by LaSalle’s invariance principle. To validate the performance of the
Mechatronics 63 (2019) 102284
presented scheme, experiments are conducted on a laboratory overhead
crane with different cable lengths and external disturbances. The results
verify its effectiveness in improving the system performance.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial
interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence
the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgment
This work is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation
of China (Project Nos. 61873239, 61403343) and the Natural Science
Foundation of Zhejiang Province (No. LY17F030018).
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[28] Wu X, He X. Enhanced damping-based anti-swing control method for underactuated Qiang Chen received the B.S. degree in measurement and
overhead cranes. IET Control Theory Appl 2015;9(12):1893–900. control technology and instrumentation from Hebei Agricul-
[29] Zhang M, Ma X, Rong X, Tian X, Li Y. Error tracking control for underactuated tural University, Baoding, China, in 2006 and the Ph.D.degree
overhead cranes against arbitrary initial payload swing angles. Mech Syst Signal in control science and engineering from Beijing Institute of
Process 2017;84:268–85. Technology, Beijing, China, in 2012. He is currently an asso-
[30] Zhang M, Ma X, Rong X, Song R, Tian X, Li Y. A partially saturated adaptive learn- ciate professor with the College of Information Engineering,
ing controller for overhead cranes with payload hoisting/lowering and unknown Zhejiang University of Technology, Hangzhou, China. His re-
parameters. Nonlinear Dyn 2017;89(3):1779–91. search interests include neural networks, sliding mode control
[31] Cho SK, Lee HH. A fuzzy-logic antiswing controller for three-dimensional overhead and adaptive control.
cranes. ISA Trans 2002;41(2):235–43.
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sional overhead crane. Mechatronics 2005;15(5):505–22.
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of underactuated crane systems. Nonlinear Dyn 2017;64(3):1749–61.
[34] Chwa D. Sliding mode control-based robust finite-time anti-sway tracking control of Zhengyang Zhu received the B.S. degree in Automation from
3D overhead cranes. IEEE Trans Ind Electron 2017;64(8):6775–84. Tianjin University of Technology, Tianjin, China, in 2017
and he is currently pursuing the Ph.D. degree in Control Sci-
Shengzeng Zhang received the B.S. degree in Electronic and ence and Engineering from Zhejiang University of Technol-
Information Engineering from Ningbo University of Technol- ogy, Hangzhou, China. His research interests include iterative
ogy, Ningbo, China, in 2013 and the M.Eng. degree in Infor- learning control and nonlinear control.
mation and Communication Engineering from Zhejiang Uni-
versity of Technology, Hangzhou, China, in 2016, where he is
currently pursuing the Ph.D. degree in Control Science and En-
gineering. He joined the mechatronics group in the Singapore
Institute of Manufacturing Technology (SIMTech), Agency for
Science, Technology, and Research(A∗ STAR), in 2019, and is
an Attached Research Student there. His research interests in-
clude nonlinear control of underactuated systems, including
overhead cranes.

Xiongxiong He received the M.S. degree from Qufu Normal

University, Qufu, China, in 1994, and the Ph.D. degree from
Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China, in 1997. He held a
post-doctoral position with the Harbin Institute of Technol-
ogy from 1998 to 2000. He joined the Zhejiang University
of Technology Hangzhou, China, in 2001, where he has been
a Professor with the College of Information Engineering. His
research areas include nonlinear control and signal process-
ing. Dr. He was General Chair of the 2014 IEEE Conference
on Industrial Electronics and Applications and Technical Pro-
gram Chair of the 2016 Conference on Data-Driven Control
and Learning Systems.