Time-optimal unfolding of a mobile truck-mounted concrete pump under constraints

摘要

Mobile truck-mounted concrete pumps are designed to transport concrete over long distances efficiently and are therefore often deployed on construction sites. Currently, a worker manually controls the unfold procedure of these large scale manipulators using a sequential strategy because of the raising boom complexity and large safety margins. Due to the narrow space on construction sites, some trucks only allow the operator to use partial outrigger configurations. Hereby, to provide static stability the operator has to follow fixed and slow unfold sequences. The manual control and the fixed unfold sequences cause the unfold procedure currently to take approximately of the whole start-up phase. This paper utilizes a model predictive control approach to realize an automated and time-optimal unfold procedure that satisfies constraints regarding self-collisions, static stability and oil volume flow restrictions. The model predictive controller is verified, and theoretical saving potentials regarding the unfold time are presented in an analysis consisting of simulated time-optimal unfold procedures for several goal configurations.