Patent ID: 7367464

Claim:
A system for use in association with a rotary boom crane situated onboard a ship and capable of hoisting a payload, said crane including a boom, a payload hoist line, a rider block, a rider block lift line, a left rider block tagline, and a right rider block tagline, said apparatus comprising: a ship motion sensor for measuring the motion of said ship; a payload swing sensor for measuring the pendulation of said payload; plural crane geometry sensors including: a slew angle sensor for measuring the slew angle and slew-angular rotation rate of said boom; a luff angle sensor for measuring the luff angle and luff-angular rotation rate of said boom; a payload hoist line sensor for measuring the length and rate-of-change-of-length of said payload hoist line; a rider block lift line sensor for measuring the length and rate-of-change-of-length of said rider block lift line; a left rider block tagline sensor for measuring the length and rate-of-change-of-length of said left rider block tagline; a right rider block tagline sensor for measuring the length and rate-of-change-of-length of said right rider block tagline; a computer program product for residence in the memory of a computer, said computer program product comprising a computer-useable medium having computer program logic recorded thereon, said computer program logic including: means for processing input signals, said input signals including input signals received from said ship motion sensor, said payload swing sensor, and said crane geometry sensors, said means for processing including means for calculating solutions pertaining to cancellation of the motion of said ship and means for calculating solutions pertaining to damping of the pendulation of said payload; means for transmitting output signals, said output signals being based on said processing of said input signals, said output signals being for controlling the slew angle of said boom, the luff angle of said boom, the length of said payload hoist line, the length of said rider block lift line, the length of said left tagline, and the length of said right tagline.