Adaptive sliding mode control of overhead cranes with varying cable length

An overhead crane transports cargoes of various weights and volumes depending on the operation case. Friction factors characterized by damped coefficients are changeable in terms of the operating environment. In this study, an adaptive version of the sliding mode control of a crane system is developed in the case of no priori knowledge of the payload mass and damped elements. Using two inputs, namely, trolley driving force and cargo lifting force, the proposed adaptive robust controller simultaneously executes four duties, including tracking the trolley, hoisting the cargo, keeping the cargo swing small during transient state, and completely eliminating the payload angle at steady destination. Numerical simulations and experiments are conducted to investigate the quality of the proposed controller. The results show that the proposed controller works well and all system responses are asymptotically stabilized.