Since the swing of the lifting load and the positioning of the trolley during the operation of a bridge crane seriously affect the safety and reliability of its work, we have not only designed Proportional Integral Derivative (PID) controllers for the anti-swing and positioning control but also proposed a hybrid Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) and Simulated Annealing (SA) algorithm to optimize the gains of the controllers. In updating the PSO algorithm, a nonlinear adaptive method is utilized to update the inertia weight and learning coefficients, and the SA algorithm is also integrated when the PSO algorithm is searching for a global optimal solution, to reduce the probability of falling into the local optimal solution. The simulation results demonstrate that the PSO–SA algorithm proposed in this paper is prone to be a more effective method in searching for the optimal parameters for the controllers, compared with three other algorithms. As shown by the experimental results, the swing angle stabilization time of the novel algorithm is 6.9 s, while the values of the other algorithms range from 10.3 to 13.1 s under a common working condition. Simultaneously, the maximum swing angle of the novel algorithm is 7.8°, which is also better than the other algorithms.

The bridge-type bridge crane is a common lifting equipment used in modern factories and workshops. During the crane’s operation, the positioning of the trolley and the swing of the load can significantly impact the bridge crane’s safety and reliability. In this paper, we propose a variable universe fuzzy multi-parameter self-tuning PID (VUFMS-PID) control strategy for controlling the trolley’s movement. Our control strategy uses scaling factor variation to dynamically adjust the number of fuzzy control rules based on the system error and error rate of change. This approach improves control accuracy and enhances the crane’s stability and safety. Simulation results demonstrate that our proposed control strategy outperforms both the fuzzy PID and traditional PID control strategies. Specifically, it reduces the crane trolley’s positioning time and the maximum swing angle of the load. Our control strategy exhibits good adaptive ability and robustness, which further improves the stability and safety of the bridge-type bridge crane operation.