SIMOCRANE Sway
Control for STS
High productivity and
maximized safety
siemens.com/cranes
Quick and precise positioning,
safe and stable operations
Innovative technology enhancing productivity and safety
Prevent Load Collision in Manual Mode
Crane operators must be focused when performing their
work assignments in order to operate safely and quickly.
The Siemens Cranes “Soft Approach” function assists crane
operators minimizing risks of collision in manual operation.
The system supports Hoist to perform soft-landing as well
as for trolley to achieve smart- slow-down. Depending on
fixed or variable obstacle, crane will either stop in front of a
mechanical structure or move softly to a next adjacent
container.
Fig 2 Hydraulic system combined with electric system
Fig 1 Soft-landing and smart-slow-down
Sway Controlled and damped in positioning
SIMOCRANE Sway Control System damps and controls the
sway of the load using a complete and approved
mathematic model. The system can adapt its behavior
according to different required scenarios. For example, to
tolerate some sway for quickly speed-up and to remove
sway without overshooting at target position. A stable and
repeatable movement ensure high productivity and safety.
Skew damping and Trim-List-Skew positioning
During the crane movement, the container has often uncontrolled skew oscillation and unexpected trim/list/skew
angle because of wind or unsymmetrical distributed load in
container. This phenomenon becomes visible especially
before landing into the ship cells or over the lash platform.
This undesirable skew oscillation is uncontrolable for operators. As solution, Siemens provides you the skew-damping
function which can be executed either by a hydraulic system or by an electric system. In addition, the TLS-positioning can help you to move the spreader automatically to the
same TLS-position as last time in waterside or landside.
‘Blocked region’ increases safety and flexibility
A blocked region is defined by an area with physical or virtual
obstacle plus a predefined safety margin. No movement is
allowed inside this region except of ‘Soft Approach’ in Manual
Mode. It is important to consider all obstacles in calculation of
the 2D-trajectory. Siemens Sway Control System provides four
different ways to build up and update the blocked regions:
• By defining fixed obstacles during commissioning.
• By learning and moving if no additional bay scanner
exists.
• By connecting with point laser as bay scanner.
• By receiving a complete 2D ship profile from higher level
controller.
A safety margin is defined to cover sensors uncertaint and
inaccuracy. In addition, various monitoring and reactions
required are implemented to make crane movement safe
and efficient.
Fig 3 Definition of a blocked region
2
Selectable concepts for 2D-Trajectory
The 2D-trajectory calculation is usually carried out at the start
of Semi-Automatic Mode (SAM), but it can also be triggered by
a higher level controller if the ship profile is updated after SAM
starts. Additionally, the trajectory will be recalculated to
dynamically adapt changes in maximum speed, target position
and ship profile on the fly for safety reasons.
To reach high productivity, the 2D-trajectory is based on timeoptimized criteria. However, if a crane operator sits in the
cabinet, the 2D-trajectory considers his unwell feeling during
backwards movement from waterside to landside. In this case,
the system provides a trajectory with later lowering point
compared to cases which the operator is in a remote control
room.
The figure below shows the spreader lowers later in the former
case than the latter one. Here the safer feeling of crane driver
is more important than time saving.
Besides, the half parabolic trajectory can be properly
adapted to meet customer special requirements, like optical
feeling.
Fig 4 Different concepts for cabine control and remote control.
Besides there is possibilty to adapt the half parabolic trajectory.
Altogether builds up the Semi-Automatic Operation
The Semi-Automatic Mode (SAM) from Siemens Sway Control
System combines most of the described functions to move
coordinately hoist and trolley of a STS crane from its started
position to a defined target, along a required optimized
trajectory. Together with Soft Approch function and TLScontrol, SAM makes the semi-automatic operation efficient
and safe.
A typical semi-automatic operation from waterside to landside:
A crane driver starts hoist with Manual Mode (MAN) until over
the safety height, then switches over to SAM on the fly. After
the container lowers to the safety height over target in
landside, the crane driver or a higher-level controller takes over
for final landing, if required. Otherwise, the SAM can set the
container directly to the final position. It is possible to activate
Dual cycling operation with direct connection to Terminal
Operation System (TOS).
3
Fig 5 A stable, repeatable and safe movement profile in SAM Fig 6 Comparison of trajectory with and without overshooting
CeCOMM - A powerful tool for commissioning and
diagnostic
The SIMOCRANE CeCOMM program is designed for
following commissioning and diagnostic tasks:
• Editing of parameter sets
• Monitoring important data
• Trace function for recording signals, interpolation points
and obstacles
• Optimizing performance and troubleshooting
• Graphic visualization of many parameters
Enhancing performance in a safer manner
Safety is an important precondition for SAM movement. At the
same time, high productivity goals are achieved. Siemens Sway
Control System minimizes overshooting at the end of
positioning, hence shortens cycle time, especially while
approaching a low target with rapid lowering speed.
A skillful crane operator applies different sway control
strategies at acceleration and deceleration, which can
reduce cycle time, too. However, human success can
happen at random, unrepeatable and in unsafe ways. This
skillful behavior is now rebuilt in the SAM workflow with
repeatable and stable performance enhancement, in safer
manner.
Integrated Solution
SIMOCRANE SC integrated STS, GSU order-number:
6GA72000AA011AA0 (Advanced Control)
Standalone solution
SIMOCRANE CeSAR standalone STS, GSU order-number:
6GA72001AA011AA0 (Advanced Control)
Fig 7 Dual Cycling Operation
Published by Siemens AG
Digital Industry
Box 31 80 91050
Erlangen, Germany
Siemens AG
Cranes Motion Control
cranes.i@siemens.com
siemens.com/cranes
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