Control of a jumbo container crane (JCC project)

Project members: J.B. Klaassens, G. Honderd, H. van Nauta Lemke

The goal of the project is to develop a new generation of container terminals capable to handle all modalities of all sizes with an equal service level. This concerns all modalities, including the within ten years coming Jumbo Container Vessel. Vessels with a capacity of eight to ten thousand TEU (Twenty Feet Equivalent). To accomplish the program's goal, a highly automated terminal will be developed. Handling containers with a throughput of 500.000 TEU a year or more can only be done economically and efficiently by robotizing stacking and terminal transport. The goal of the JCC project is to develop container cranes which can handle a Jumbo Container Vessel within 24 hours (see Figure 23). The JCC project has the following participants: Siemens Nederland N.V., ECT, Transport Technology group of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Marine Technology of Delft University of Technology), and DCSC.

DCSC contributes with the following research activities:

• development of 2D and 3D mathematical models of the container crane.
• (time)optimal trajectory generation. This research provides a trajectory for the container crane load which minimizes the transfer time for the container.
• design of robust controllers with the potential of fully automatizing the process. The torque patterns of the cat motor and the hoist motor are controlled in such a way that the container can track the time-optimal trajectory.
• stabilizing swing and skew of the container.

Figure 23: Sketch of the jumbo container crane.