Abstract
A Knuckle Boom Crane is a pedestal-mounted, slew-bearing crane with a joint in the middle of the distal arm; i.e. boom. This distal boom articulates at the ‘knuckle (i.e.: joint)’ and that allows it to fold back like a finger. This is an ideal configuration for a crane on a ship where storage space is a premium. This project researches the motion and control of a ship mounted knuckle boom crane to minimize the pendulum motion of a hanging load. To do this, the project leverages the Moving Frame Method (MFM). The MFM draws upon Lie group theory — SO(3) and SE(3) — and Cartan’s Moving Frames. This, together with a compact notation from geometrical physics, makes it possible to extract the equations of motion, expeditiously. The work reported here accounts for the masses and geometry of all components, interactive motor couples and prepares for buoyancy forces and added mass on the ship. The equations of motion are solved numerically using a 4th order Runge Kutta (RK4), while solving for the rotation matrix for the ship using the Cayley-Hamilton theorem and Rodriguez’s formula for each timestep. This work displays the motion on 3D web pages, viewable on mobile devices.
Modeling a Knuckle-Boom Crane Control to Reduce Pendulum Motion Using the Moving Frame Method
