Modern industrial demand for efficient material handling in confined spaces has driven the need for overhead cranes capable of short-distance point-to-point maneuvers without compromising payload stability. Conventional three-stage shaper profiles, experiencing acceleration, cruising, and deceleration, become inefficient or infeasible for short distances where cruising speed cannot be reached before deceleration begins. This paper proposes a single smooth waveform command-shaping controller specifically designed for two-stage acceleration–deceleration maneuvers when the cruising stage is eliminated due to distance constraints, offering closed-form coefficients for easy implementation without the need for complex optimization processes. To define where a two-stage shaper is required, feasibility maps defining operational limits across cable lengths, distances, and time constraints are presented. Experimental validation on a laboratory crane confirms strong agreement with numerical simulations, achieving minimal residual oscillations for short-distance and rapid-cycle operations. Sensitivity analysis shows robustness improves with cable length, and the two-stage shaper outperforms the three-stage approach under natural frequency variations. The proposed novel two-stage shaper provides a practical, vibration-free solution for short-distance crane operations where total cycle time must be minimized.
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2025 The Author(s). International Journal of Mechanical System Dynamics published by John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd on behalf of Nanjing University of Science and Technology.
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