Attitude-pendulum-sloshing coupled dynamics of quadrotors slung liquid containers

Quadrotors suspended water containers may be used for fire-fighting services. Unfortunately, the complicated dynamics in this type of system degrade the flight safety because of coupling effects among the quadrotor attitude, container swing, and liquid sloshing. However, few effects have been directed at the attitude-pendulum-sloshing dynamics in this type of aerial cranes. A novel planar model of a quadrotor carrying a liquid tank under dual-hoist mechanisms is presented. The model includes vehicle-attitude dynamics, load-swing dynamics, and fluid-sloshing dynamics. Resulting from the model, a new method is proposed to control coupled oscillations among the vehicle attitude, load swing, and fluid sloshing. Numerous simulations on the nonlinear model demonstrate that the control method can reduce the undesirable oscillations, stabilize the quadrotor’s attitude, and reject the external disturbances. The theoretical findings may also extend to the three-dimensional dynamics of quadrotors slung liquid tanks, and other types of aerial vehicles transporting liquid containers including helicopters or tiltrotors.

Autonomous Control and Transportation of Underslung Load with Single and Dual Lift Helicopter Systems

This paper discusses the development of a single lift and dual-lift helicopter underslung load transportation system for practical applications. A control law is developed to damp the load swing and stabilize the oscillation while performing the transportation task. For the dual-lift system, the load transportation is achieved by using a load distribution controller, developed for this purpose, to maintain equal load distribution among the vehicles. The load damping and load distribution controllers require accurate measurement of load states, which is achieved through the design and development of innovative, simple, and lightweight sensors units namely, Load Tension Measurement Unit (LTMU) and Load Swing Measurement Unit (LSMU). LTMU sensor consists of a unique design that utilizes a flexi-force sensor, capable of measuring compressive load, for measurement of cable tension. The cable inclination in the longitudinal and lateral directions is measured by the LSMU sensor. These units are integrated with the helicopter autopilot for autonomous flight. The performance of the developed system is experimentally validated in the outdoor environment with single and dual-lift systems.

Dynamics modelling and analysis of a large-load swinging platform

Swing platform is widely used to simulate the motion attitude of vehicles, ships and aircraft while carrying large loads. Aiming at the excessive driving force and output power of the driving parts caused by the large load swing platform, a new swing platform which can bear the large load was established. The swing platform is equipped with four spring branch chains between the moving platform and the static platform of the 6-UPS parallel mechanism, so as to offset the gravity of the large load and the inertia force of the large load in the process of motion, and the driving force of each branch chain is reduced. In this paper, the structure of the swing platform is introduced, and the dynamics of the swing platform is modeled using the Newton-Euler dynamics equation. Finally, the driving force of each branch chain of the swing platform is obtained by simulation of the dynamics of the swing platform. The simulation results show that the swing platform with four spring branch chains can effectively reduce the driving force of each branch chain compared with the traditional 6-UPS parallel mechanism swing platform.

SWINGING OF THE LOAD ON THE TOWER CRANE AND PROBLEMS OF FIXING THE OSCILLATORY MOVEMENTS OF THE LOAD

The article considers the issues associated with the swinging of the load on the flexible suspension, the mechanical scheme of movement of trolley with load on the flexible suspension is represented, the processes start traveling mechanism of the trolley on a tower crane are investigated, the substantiation for the application of safety devices with the registration parameters fixed (register) load-swing is given, presented models of technical solutions to commit (register) load-swing.

A New Payload Swing Angle Sensing Device and Its Accuracy

Measuring the swing angle of a crane load is a relatively well-known but unsatisfactorily solved problem in technical practice. This measurement is necessary for the automatic stabilization of load swing without human intervention. This article describes a technically simple and new approach to solving this problem. The focus of this work is to determine the accuracy of the measuring device. The focus of this work remains on the design, the principle of operation of the equipment, and the determination of accuracy. The basic idea is to apply the strain gauge on an elastic, easily deformable component that is part of the device. One part of the elastic component is fixedly connected to the frame; the other part is connected to the crane rope by means of pulleys close to the rope. In this way, the bending of the elastic component in proportion to the swing angle of the payload is ensured.

A Predictive Control Strategy for Aerial Payload Transportation with an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle

This paper presents the results of a model-based predictive control (MPC) design for a quadrotor aerial vehicle with a suspended load. Unlike previous works, the controller takes into account the hanging payload dynamics, the dynamics in three-dimensional space, and the vehicle rotation, achieving a good balance between fast stabilization times and small swing angles. The mathematical model is based on the Euler–Lagrange formulation and considers the dynamics of the vehicle, the cable, and the load. Then, the mathematical model is represented as an input-affine system to obtain the linear model for the control design. A constrained MPC strategy was designed and compared with an unconstrained MPC and an algorithm from the literature for the case of study. The constraints to be considered include the limits on the swing angles and the quadrotor position. The constrained control algorithm was constructed to stabilize the aerial vehicle. It aims to track a trajectory reference while attenuating the load swing, considering a maximum swing range of ±10∘. Numerical simulations were carried out to validate the control strategy.

Research on Nonlinear Coupled Tracking Controller for Double Pendulum Gantry Cranes With Load Hoisting/lowering

Gantry cranes, which have attracted extensive attention, are mostly simplified as nonlinear single pendulum systems without load hoisting/lowering. However, in fact, due to the existence of the hook, gantry cranes produce double pendulum swing. With an extra underactuated degree of freedom, the anti-swing control of the double pendulum gantry cranes becomes more difficult than that of single pendulum gantry cranes, especially when load hoisting/lowering is considered simultaneously. Moreover, large swings, which lead to problems such as inaccurate positioning and low transportation efficiency, may be caused by double pendulum gantry cranes with load hoisting/lowering. In this paper, a nonlinear coupled tracking anti-swing controller is proposed to solve these problems. In this controller, a smooth tracking trajectory is introduced to ensure the stable start and run of the trolley, and a coupled signal is constructed to eliminate the residual swing angles of gantry crane system. The system stability is analyzed by using Lyapunov method and Barbarat theorem. Theoretical derivation, simulation and experimental results show that the proposed controller has excellent control performance, specifically, not only does it ensure accurate positioning of the load, but also it suppresses and eliminates the hook/load swing angle effectively. The proposed controller can still achieve good control effects and has strong robustness under the condition of changing the load mass, trolley target displacement, system initial swing angles and adding external disturbance.

Control Optimisation of Overhead Gantry Cranes via Fuzzy Controllers

This study considers a fuzzy logic-based reasoning approach for control and optimising performance of overhead gantry crane. The objective of this study is to minimise load swing and to stabilise the crane in the least possible time. The fuzzy controllers were designed using nine Gaussian and triangular shape membership functions. The results clearly confirmed the effect of shape of memberships on performance of fuzzy controllers. Performance of overhead crane was measured in terms of settling time and overshoot ranges. The study also demonstrates the influence of varying mass of the load, mass of crane, and length of crane bar on stability of the crane. A mathematical model of the crane system has been derived to develop a simulink model of proposed system and performing simulations.