Guaranteed cost control for an overhead crane with practical constraints: Fuzzy descriptor system approach

This study considers a practical overhead crane control problem of designing a fuzzy control to ensure that the trolley arrives precisely at its destination; the load swing angle approaches to zero, and the energy of input and states is minimized. Furthermore, the constraints for the overhead crane operation are also considered and satisfied. Those constraints are that when the crane is moving, the swing angle has to be small; the swing speed has to be slow, and the moving force is limited. The fuzzy descriptor system is chosen to represent the dynamics of the overhead crane, and a guaranteed cost fuzzy control design is proposed for the fuzzy descriptor system. Moreover, this study also illustrates why the fuzzy descriptor system instead of traditional T-S fuzzy system is selected here as the model of the overhead crane. The simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed control design scheme. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.