Sway Control

Our Sway Control solutions for reducing swaying movements of the hook or grapple as the crane moves minimize both linear and rotary swaying motions of the grapple or hook. Sway Control increases the safety and efficiency of cranes by dynamically compensating for unwanted sway movements as the crane moves and ensures stable and precise load handling.

We offer the classic Sway Control approach using the open-loop method, where the system attenuates the sway of hook or grapple induced by acceleration and braking without using feedback from sensors. However, we have also developed an Active Sway Control solution, which we describe in more detail below.

Our closed-circuit Active Sway Control suppresses sway that was initiated by accelerating or slowing down the crane as it moves the hook or grapple to its destination, and also sway that was caused by external factors such as wind, lifting of the load, etc. Using the same sensor input, our TorsionKiller approach gets rid of unwanted rotational sway movements, provided that the crane has possibilities for rotating grapple or hook.

Active Sway Control uses a camera mounted on the trolley, which continuously and precisely monitors the alignment of the grapple or hook’s head block. The system’s AI processes the camera data in real time, calculates precise correction movements, and sends them to the crane’s PLC to stabilize the load as it is transported.

Our system operates in either of two modes:

• Sway Prevention: The system automatically suppresses all sway movements, including rotary pendulum movements, while the crane is moving. As a result, the load remains stable throughout the operation.
• Sway Reduction: The system quickly dampens any existing pendulum movements - both linear and rotary - and stops them, so that a safe and accurate load placement is possible.

By reducing the swaying motion of grapple, hook and load, our solution improves safety and positioning accuracy, increases the crane’s working speed and reduces the operator’s work load.

Our Sway Control works best in conjunction with our Shortcuts solution: When the system drives the load directly to the target, it knows exactly when to start with counter-movements, so that the load arrives at the target without any oscillation.