Vision-based control of a knuckle boom crane with online cable length estimation

A vision-based controller for a knuckle boom crane is presented. The controller is used to control the motion of the crane tip and at the same time compensate for payload oscillations. The oscillations of the payload are measured with three cameras that are fixed to the crane king and are used to track two spherical markers fixed to the payload cable. Based on color and size information, each camera identifies the image points corresponding to the markers. The payload angles are then determined using linear triangulation of the image points. An extended Kalman filter is used for estimation of payload angles and angular velocity. The length of the payload cable is also estimated using a least squares technique with projection. The crane is controlled by a linear cascade controller where the inner control loop is designed to damp out the pendulum oscillation, and the crane tip is controlled by the outer loop. The control variable of the controller is the commanded crane tip acceleration, which is converted to a velocity command using a velocity loop. The performance of the control system is studied experimentally using a scaled laboratory version of a knuckle boom crane

A PC Cluster High-Fidelity Mobile Crane Simulator

[[abstract]]The mobile crane simulator is a project sponsored by Employment and Vocational Training Administration, Council of Labor Affair, Executive Yuan, Taiwan, to build a safe device for training and licensing. This paper presents the principle and mechanism to build a high-fidelity interactive visual simulator on a cluster of PCs. The implemented mobile crane simulator uses the peer-to-peer architecture with the push and pull mechanism to achieve the parallelism among distributed tasks. A distributive simulation socket, called Communication Backbone(CB), is adopted to integrate the functional tasks of the mobile crane simulator in a PC clustering environment. With CB, tasks of the simulated mobile crane are executed as standalone applications and seamlessly communicate with each other through CB. Finally, the system response rate of the implemented mobile crane simulator achieves 16 times per second which is larger than human acceptable perception rate as suggested by the human factors studies.[[abstract]]The mobile crane simulator is a project sponsored by Employment and Vocational Training Administration, Council of Labor Affair, Executive Yuan, Taiwan, to build a safe device for training and licensing. This paper presents the principle and mechanism to build a high-fidelity interactive visual simulator on a cluster of PCs. The implemented mobile crane simulator uses the peer-to-peer architecture with the push and pull mechanism to achieve the parallelism among distributed tasks. A distributive simulation socket, called Communication Backbone(CB), is adopted to integrate the functional tasks of the mobile crane simulator in a PC clustering environment. With CB, tasks of the simulated mobile crane are executed as standalone applications and seamlessly communicate with each other through CB. Finally, the system response rate of the implemented mobile crane simulator achieves 16 times per second which is larger than human acceptable perception rate as suggested by the human factors studies

Experience of building a high-fidelity mobile crane simulator with cluster of desktop computers

[[abstract]]The paper presents the technique and experience of building a high-fidelity visual interactive simulator on a cluster of desktop computers (COD). The COD is a fully distributed computation environment that is constructed by clustering several desktop computers to form a high-performance computation environment. The contributions of the paper include proposing a method to build a high-fidelity interactive visual simulator on a cluster of desktop computers. A distribution socket, called Communication Backbone (CB), is designed and implemented to achieve this goal. In addition, the proposed architecture is used to construct a mobile crane simulator for training. The result of the implemented simulator is also presented and discussed.[[notice]]補正完畢[[conferencetype]]國際[[conferencedate]]20010416~20010419[[iscallforpapers]]Y[[conferencelocation]]Mesa, Arizona, US

Emerging risks in smart process industry cranes survey: SAF€RA research project SPRINCE

Savremene teorije fokusirane na istraživanje incidenata pokazuju da smanjenje udela ljudskih grešaka ne može da se postigne isključivo korekcijom ponašanja zaposlenih već zahteva izvesne inovacije koje im mogu pomoći u tom cilju. Kako veći broj istraživanja pokazuje, dizalice predstavljaju izvor opasnosti kako u industriji tako i u građevinarstvu, dok je ljudska greška najčešći uzrok incidenata. Shodno tome, implementacija inovativnog sistema za navigaciju može imati veliki potencijal za unapređenje bezbednosti rada dizalica. Međutim, brzi razvoj novih tehnologija usmerenih ka unapređenju radnih uslova i okruženja, takođe predstavlja izvor rizika, koje treba uzeti u obzir i kojima treba ovladati. Projekat 'SPRINCE' (Pametne dizalice u procesnoj industriji) ima za cilj primenu rešenja za praćenje objekta u realnom vremenu sa vizuelnim povratnim informacijama i razvoj i primenu inovativnog alata koji podrazumeva definisanje i proveru indikatora za procenu uticaja organizacionih i ljudskih (vezanih za rukovaoca) faktora primenom metode studije slučaja.Current accident theories show that the solution to avoid human error cannot be based on focusing only on the correction of operators' behavior, but needs certain innovation that will help to keep an error away. Since, as evidenced by several incident surveys, cranes are the most dangerous equipment in industrial and construction sites and human error is the most frequent cause of accidents, in this frame the crane navigation system is an important and challenging component, with a great potential for safety improvement. However, as the emerging and rapid development of new technologies aims improving the working conditions and environment through solutions regarding existing well-known problems in occupational safety, their implementation also could lead to emerging hazards and risks that must be taken into account and managed. Based on these facts, SPRINCE (Smart PRocess INdustry CranEs) project aims implementing a real-time object detection solution, which deals with cranes' tracking systems and incorporates visual feedback, developing and implementing an innovative tool for evaluation of organizational and human (operator-specific) factors. These factors will be included in the risk indicators of the implemented real-time object detection solution using case studies approach

Real-Time Motion Compensation in Ship-to-Ship Load Handling

DoktorgradsavhandlingLike the automotive industry, the maritime industry is facing a higher demand for autonomous offshore operations. It is therefore in the author’s belief that the marine industry has to develop and implement new technology for both existing and new products to meet the increased autonomy demand. This thesis aims at presenting a unified understanding of the motions and the accompanying load handling issue in ship-to-ship operations. The ship-to-ship kinematics is modeled and a crane operator assistant is developed as a possible solution to increase the so-called weather window of ship-to-ship load transfers. The weather window is today determined by the significant wave height, and the current limitation of such operations is at 2.5m significant wave height. Proposing new methods capable of assisting the crane operator when transferring the load from one ship onto another is believed to further relax the weather window criteria, as well as increasing both the safety and efficiency of the operation itself. A novel ship-to-ship estimation algorithm using the well known Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) is developed and experimentally investigated in the Norwegian Motion Laboratory. In addition to the ship-to-ship observer, an observer for measuring the suspended load motions is developed. These estimators are used to form the novel crane operator assistant presented at the end of this thesis. The presented assistant consists of a wire-length assistant and an anti-swing assistant, which both aim at assisting the crane operator in ship-to-ship load transfers by adjusting the crane operator inputs slightly in real-time. The expected outcome is increased repeatability and efficiency, as well as reduced risk in general. The developed methods are described using a common and consistent mathematical notation for both the observers and the kinematic control systems. The appended papers at the end of this thesis have experimentally investigated and validated the proposed methods using several experiments which have been carried out in the Norwegian Motion Laborator

Assessment of VR Technology and its Applications to Engineering Problems

Virtual reality applications are making valuable contributions to the field of product realization. This paper presents an assessment of the hardware and software capabilities of VR technology needed to support a meaningful integration of VR applications in the product life cycle analysis. Several examples of VR applications for the various stages of the product life cycle engineering are presented as case studies. These case studies describe research results, fielded systems, technical issues, and implementation issues in the areas of virtual design, virtual manufacturing, virtual assembly, engineering analysis, visualization of analysis results, and collaborative virtual environments. Current issues and problems related to the creation, use, and implementation of virtual environments for engineering design, analysis, and manufacturing are also discussed

Effectively Including Human Factors in the Design of New Facilities

Human error is a major cause of incidents in the offshore industry. For example, in the Gulf of Mexico region in 1998, 38% of all incidents were attributed to human error with an additional 9% of incidents resulting from slips, trips, and falls (MMS 2000-021, OCS Report). Human Factors, when integrated during the design of a new offshore facility, can reduce the potential for human error and the occurrence of unfortunate incidents. Quite often the implementation of Human Factors (HF) during design is disregarded because of the notion that it will add unacceptable costs. Review of the cost/benefit data contained in this paper proves that notion to be untrue. Although cost/benefit is important, it was not the primary focus of this Working Group. This paper’s focus is to develop a means or a strategy to effectively integrate the application of HF design principles into all phases of a new capital design project. This Working Group’s objective during the Second International Workshop on Human Factors in Offshore Operations was to generate discussion concerning HF integration strategies and to focus on specific implementation issues that have been shown to be successful. These include but are not limited to: · The factors critical to the success of HF integration · What HF activities should be conducted · At what stage during the various design phases should HF activities take place · HF strategies, how to decide what level of human factors engineering is required · The qualifications and responsibilities of those executing HF activitie

Effectively Including Human Factors in the Design of New Facilities

Human error is a major cause of incidents in the offshore industry. For example, in the Gulf of Mexico region in 1998, 38% of all incidents were attributed to human error with an additional 9% of incidents resulting from slips, trips, and falls (MMS 2000-021, OCS Report). Human Factors, when integrated during the design of a new offshore facility, can reduce the potential for human error and the occurrence of unfortunate incidents. Quite often the implementation of Human Factors (HF) during design is disregarded because of the notion that it will add unacceptable costs. Review of the cost/benefit data contained in this paper proves that notion to be untrue. Although cost/benefit is important, it was not the primary focus of this Working Group. This paper’s focus is to develop a means or a strategy to effectively integrate the application of HF design principles into all phases of a new capital design project. This Working Group’s objective during the Second International Workshop on Human Factors in Offshore Operations was to generate discussion concerning HF integration strategies and to focus on specific implementation issues that have been shown to be successful. These include but are not limited to: · The factors critical to the success of HF integration · What HF activities should be conducted · At what stage during the various design phases should HF activities take place · HF strategies, how to decide what level of human factors engineering is required · The qualifications and responsibilities of those executing HF activitie

Proceedings of the 5th Baltic Mechatronics Symposium - Espoo April 17, 2020

The Baltic Mechatronics Symposium is annual symposium with the objective to provide a forum for young scientists from Baltic countries to exchange knowledge, experience, results and information in large variety of fields in mechatronics. The symposium was organized in co-operation with Taltech and Aalto University. Due to Coronavirus COVID-19 the symposium was organized as a virtual conference. The content of the proceedings1. Monitoring Cleanliness of Public Transportation with Computer Vision2. Device for Bending and Cutting Coaxial Wires for Cryostat in Quantum Computing3. Inertial Measurement Method and Application for Bowling Performance Metrics4. Mechatronics Escape Room5. Hardware-In-the-Loop Test Setup for Tuning Semi-Active Hydraulic Suspension Systems6. Newtonian Telescope Design for Stand-off Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy7. Simulation and Testing of Temperature Behavior in Flat Type Linear Motor Carrier8. Powder Removal Device for Metal Additive Manufacturing9. Self-Leveling Spreader Beam for Adjusting the Orientation of an Overhead Crane Loa