This paper presents development and implementation of a novel approach to produce an s-shaped command with higher residual vibration. In this work, a three dimensional gantry crane is considered where a complete nonlinear mathematical model of a laboratory crane with variable cable length is simulated. A distributed delay zero vibration shaper based approach is proposed to produce an s-curved command. The effectiveness of the shaped command is examined through simulations using the nonlinear model and experiments on the laboratory crane. Simulation and experimental results show that the proposed scheme resulted in lower overall sways for rail and trolley of the crane when compared to a conventional s-shaped signal
