Double-loop control with proportional-integral and partial feedback linearization for a 3D gantry crane

A gantry crane plays an essential part in industrial transportation and construction. Safety and productivity of a crane become considerably worse with fluctuation of cargo caused by dynamic characteristics and working environment. Therefore, reducing vibration and accurate trajectory tracking of the cargo are the major missions of a controller. In this study, a double-loop controller that is combined with inner proportional-integral (PI) loop and outer partial feedback linearization (PFL) is proposed for a three dimensional gantry crane where the dynamical model is obtained with Lagrangian formula. Numerical simulations are carried out to investigate appropriateness of the proposed controller and to validate the performance of it.