Influence of Remote-Operation Time Delay on Crane Operator Performance

Cranes are used extensively in many industries throughout the world, in a wide array of environments, including some that are hazardous to humans. The vast majority of cranes are directly controlled by human operators. In some cases, it is necessary to remove the human operator from hazardous operating conditions, creating a crane that must be remotely operated. This, however, introduces additional challenges for the operator, who must now control the oscillatory payload while suffering from decreased perception of the environment and the potential time delays caused by remote operation. This paper presents two studies of crane operator performance with varying time delays. The results show that the type of crane control and duration of the communication time delay directly influence task completion time and difficulty. Input shaping control is shown to improve completion times and lower operator effort.