Evaluation and integration of a wireless touchscreen into a bridge crane control system

Abstract

Human manipulation of suspended payloads using cranes can be difficult. Cable sway is easily induced into the lightly damped system, which inhibits efficient, safe, and accurate payload manipulation. This problem is compounded when the payload forms a double-pendulum configuration. To aid operators, a wireless touchscreen controller was integrated into the control system of a 10-ton industrial bridge crane. This touchscreen allows an operator to move freely around the workspace and drive the crane with a simple graphical user interface. The operational effects of the touchscreen was compared to that of a standard pendent interface through a series of human operator performance studies. An oscillation suppression algorithm was used in conjunction with each interface. The touchscreen provides greater operator mobility while producing comparable manipulation performance.

Use of Cranes in System Dynamics and Controls Education

“…The cranes also provide an excellent opportunity for undergraduates to get involved in research. In fact, numerous undergraduates have already used the cranes to conduct research that has resulted in technical publications [Lawrence et al, 2006a,b, Khalid et al, 2006, Bradley et al, 2006, Kim and Singhose, 2007a,b, Singhose et al, 2007, Suter et al, 2007, Vaughan et al, 2007, 2008a.…”

Age and Gestural Differences in the Ease of Rotating a Virtual 3D Image on a Large, Multi-Touch Screen

“…It can be installed easily in the surfaces of products and used intuitively. The literature describes many successful applications, such as a health information systems (Holzinger, 2003;Jackson & Peters, 2003), vehicle navigation systems (Chiang, Brooks, & Weir, 2004), interfaces used in equipment control (Rogers, O'Brien, & McLaughlin, 2006;Suter, Dooroo, Singhose, Sorensen, & Glauser, 2007;Mainardi, 2008), and an electronic voting system (Nishino, Goto, Kagawa, Utsumiya, Hirooka, Osada, et al, 2010). In recent years, touchscreens have been applied in a wide range of situations, from improving communication between nursing staff and patients with Alzheimer's disease (Astell, Ellis, Bernardi, Alm, Dye, Gowans, et al, 2010) to facilitating interactions between human operators and 3D visualizations of multimedia digital content (Yu & Isenberg, 2009).…”