Dynamics and Control of Cable-Suspended Upright Heterogeneous Cylinders

Large upright heterogeneous flexible cylinders need to be transported by huge cranes in some safety-critical industrial applications. Unfortunately, the coupling effects between swing and twisting of the cable-suspended load, as well as bending and torsion of the flexible cylinder, degrade efficiency and safety of the material transportation. Although many publications have been directed at understanding compound-pendulum dynamics and beam vibrations, little attention has been focused on the coupled dynamics between load swing and twisting, as well as bending and torsion of cylindrical payloads. A three-dimensional model of a bridge crane moving an upright heterogeneous flexible cylinder has been developed to study such dynamic coupling. Furthermore, a control method has been developed to attenuate vibrations induced by the complex coupling effects. Several experiments have been performed to verify the effectiveness of the proposed dynamic model and control methods.