| Manitoba Hydro uses a P&H-T250 crane and an M.P. McCaffrey Inc. cable driven claming device to remove trash from the front wall of hydro dams. Due to the complexity of the task and lack of perception of the underwater working status, inexperienced operators running this machine may encounter difficulties and potentially cause damage to both the environment and the machine. To solve this problem, the concept of coordinated-motion control with graphic human-machine interfacing is proposed. Before any control strategy can be implemented, it is desirable that the system be modeled mathematically. Then, any control algorithm can be tested on the model first. It is also preferred that based on this model, new operators can be trained on a simulator before they have the opportunity to run the real machine.;This research has made the following contributions. First, a mathematical model of the claming machine was developed. Based on this model, a real-time simulation with 3D graphics and interactive features was created. Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA) technology was then employed to distribute the complex dynamics calculations on a server while relieving the client computer to concentrate on graphics rendering, collision detection and control signal collection. Critical Mass Lab's simulation toolkit was also used on the client side to make the physics-based simulation more realistic and interactive. The proposed control algorithm can be developed on this platform, and novice operators can be trained on this interactive simulator. |
