A hybrid control mechanism for stabilizing a crane load under environmental wind on a construction site

Tower cranes are widely used in construction jobsite for their efficiency. However, tower cranes and construction workers themselves suffer a significant safety hazards from natural sway of payloads. Besides, the external disturbance of wind leads to additional sway and intensifies the oscillation amplitude of crane load on construction site. Therefore, we propose a hybrid control mechanism that combine electronic and mechanical gyroscopes to produce a balancing torque, keeping crane load stable. We assume the crane load as in the case of the inverted pendulum and simulate the oscillation movement under continuous wind. A hybrid control mechanism is designed and developed, with the electronic gyroscope to track the real-time position and orientation of payload, with the mechanical gyroscope as an actuator of collected feedback to control the oscillation amplitudes. A wind tunnel test has been conducted to validate the developed hybrid mechanism.