An advanced cargo handling system operating at sea

Abstract

Mobile Harbor (MH) was recently proposed by KAIST as a novel maritime cargo transfer system that can go out to a container ship anchored in deep water and handle containers at sea. Since the system operates in at-sea conditions with waves and wind, the MH crane should be designed to suppress the swing motion of a spreader and compensate the relative motion between the MH and a container ship. For that purpose, we devised a state-of-the-art crane system equipped with a dual stage trolley, tension controller, and intelligent spreader with 3 degrees of freedom. We also integrated a robust sensing system to measure remote motions in harsh open-sea condition. With these advanced systems, we achieved swing free, position, tilting, and heave control systems for precise and safe cargo transfer. Experimental results with a 1/20 scale MH crane show the feasibility of the proposed system for at-sea cargo transfer.