Simulation-assisted teaching of graduate students in transport: A case study of the application of acausal freeware JModelica.org to solution of Sakawa’s open-loop optimal control problem for payload motion during crane boom rotation

The present article is focused on the improvement of the quality of engineering education of graduate students with a major in transport and mechanical engineering through the derivation of a numerical solution of the optimal control problem for payload swaying during crane boom slewing, formulated by Sakawa et al. For the first time, a numerical solution of Sakawa’s problem has been derived with an application of JModelica.org freeware. The fundamental difference between this solution and Sakawa’s is the imposition of a restrictive constraint on the allowable value of payload swaying during boom-driven payload motion. The solution derived by the authors for Sakawa’s problem takes exact account of the restrictive constraints on the phase variables in contrast to Sakawa’s model, where the restriction constraints on the phase variables have been approximated. The complex of authors-proposed computational algorithms was implemented with JModelica.org. The proposed open-code algorithms derive numerical data and computational plots, which enhance and expand students’ knowledge about the dynamics of guided boom-driven payload swaying during rotary crane boom slewing.