Load Position Estimation for Crane Anti-Sway Control Systems

A rising number of modern cranes are equipped with anti-sway control systems to facilitate crane operation, improve positioning accuracy, and increase turnover. Commonly, these industrial crane control systems require pendulum state information for feedback control. Therefore, a pendulum sway sensor (e.g., a rope-mounted gyroscope) and a signal processing algorithm are required. Such a signal processing algorithm needs to filter out disturbances from both the sensor and the crane, e.g., signal noise and string oscillations of a long rope. Typically, these signal processing algorithms require the knowledge of the acceleration of the rope suspension point. This acceleration signal is often estimated from drive models. When drive models are uncertain, the pendulum state estimation accuracy suffers from drive model inaccuracy. In this contribution, an improved estimation algorithm is presented which estimates the load position without relying on the rope suspension point acceleration. The developed Extended Kalman Filter is implemented on a Liebherr mobile harbor crane and its effectiveness is validated with multiple test rides and GPS load position reference measurements

Study protocol of a randomized controlled trial evaluating home treatment with peer support for acute mental health crises (HoPe)

Background: Home treatment (HT) is a treatment modality for patients with severe mental illness (SMI) in acute mental crises. It is frequently considered equivalent to psychiatric inpatient treatment in terms of treatment outcome. Peer Support (PS) means that people with lived experience of a mental illness are trained to support others on their way towards recovery. While PS is growing in international importance and despite a growing number of studies supporting its benefits, it is still not comprehensively implemented into routine care. The HoPe (Home Treatment with Peer Support) study investigates a combination of both - HT and PS - to provide further evidence for a recovery-oriented treatment of psychiatric patients. Methods: In our randomized controlled trial (RCT), HT with PS is compared with HT without PS within a network of eight psychiatric clinical centers from the North, South and East of Germany. We investigate the effects of a combination of both approaches with respect to the prevention of relapse/recurrence defined as first hospitalization after randomization (primary outcome), disease severity, general functioning, self-efficacy, psychosocial health, stigma resistance, recovery support, and service satisfaction (secondary outcomes). A sample of 286 patients will be assessed at baseline after admission to HT care (data point t(0)) and randomized into the intervention (HT+ PS) and control arm (HT). Follow-Up assessments will be conducted 2, 6 and 12 months after admission (resulting in three further data points, t(1) to t(3)) and will be analyzed via intention-to-treat approach. Discussion: This study may determine the positive effects of PS added to HT, prove additional evidence for the efficacy of PS and thereby facilitate its further implementation into psychiatric settings. The aim is to improve quality of mental health care and patients' recovery as well as to reduce the risk of relapses and hospitalizations for patients with SMI