Part 3- Potential Applications

The uncontrolled pendulation motions of crane loads during offshore lifting operations not only present hazard to personnel and equipment but are also one of the key factors in limiting the operational efficiency of many offshore activities. This problem has been ‘tolerated ’ for decades simply for the lack of a practical solution. Two main projects have been undertaken to tackle this problem: one aiming to establish the technical feasibility of the concept of active pendulation control mainly through model test and the other attempting to demonstrate its feasibility in full scale prototype. This report outlines the work undertaken during these projects and presents the key findings and is in three parts. In Part 1 the control strategy and the process of designing the controller is described in some detail, and some issues, which arose during the implementation phase of the work, are discussed. An indication of the robustness of the control algorithm and the APCS mechanism is given at component level in Part 2, and the potential application of the concept in offshore lifting and shipping industry is briefly discussed in Part 3. This report and the work it describes were funded by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE). Its contents, including any opinions and/or conclusions expressed, are those of the authors alone and do not necessarily reflect HSE policy