Gantry cranes gain scheduling feedback control with friction compensation

We designed a controller based on gain-scheduling feedback to move a load on a gantry crane from point to point within one oscillation cycle and without inducing large swings. The settling time of the system is taken to be equal to the period of oscillation of the load. This criterion enables calculation of the controller feedback gains for varying load weight and cable length. Numerical simulations show that the controller is effective in reducing load oscillations and transferring the load in a reasonable time compared with that of optimal control. To experimentally validate the theory, we had to compensate for friction. To this end, we estimated the friction, and then applied an opposite control action to cancel it. To estimate the friction force, we assumed a mathematical model, and then we estimated the model coefficients using an off-line identification technique, such as the method of least squares (LS). First, the process of identification is applied to a theoretical model of a DC motor with known friction coefficients. From this example, some guidelines and rules are deduced for the choice of the LS parameters. Then, the friction coefficients of the gantry crane model are estimated and validated.