A method for operating a winch and a winch comprising a winch drum (20) for spooling a spoolable medium (10) for mooring a vessel, and a winch drive (30, 40, 41) configured to drive the winch drum (20), wherein, during the driving of the winch drum (20), at least when a monitored tension of the spoolable medium (10) is between a second upper tension threshold and a second lower tension threshold, an absolute value of the driving speed of the winch drum is configured to have a value that is proportional to an absolute value of a difference between the monitored tension of the spoolable medium and a predetermined tension set point.

A hybrid winch system for use with an anchor handling vessel is disclosed that includes but is not limited to an electric winch mountable on the anchor handling vessel, an electric generator for providing generated power to the electric winch, a battery for providing stored power to the electric winch, an anchor cable wound around the electric winch and passing over a roller drum for guiding the anchor cable, an anchor attached to a distal end of the anchor cable and a winch controller for selectively applying the generated power and the stored power to the electric winch. The winch controller is configured to provide the stored power to the electric winch for controlled release of the anchor cable in the case of loss of the generated power.

A method for operating an anchor winch and an anchor winch for a vessel (100), comprising a winch drum (20) and an electric drive (30, 40, 41) configured to raise the anchor (11) by driving the winch drum (20) with an electric motor (30), to detect a first increase in a torque produced by the electric motor (30), which is higher than a first predetermined torque threshold, a subsequent decrease in the torque produced by the electric motor (30), which lasts for at least a predetermined time threshold and during which decrease a rate of decrease is within a predetermined range, and a subsequent second increase in the torque produced by the electric motor (30), which is higher than a second predetermined torque threshold, and, in response to detecting the second increase, determine that the anchor (30) has risen above a water surface (200) of a body of water.

A method for influencing a cable winch force acting on a cable drive, comprises the method steps providing a cable drive with a drivable winch and with a cable that can be wound on the winch, providing a device for producing a traction sheave cable force on the cable, determining an outer cable force, predetermining a cable drive operating state, providing a control-regulating unit to influence the traction sheave cable force, producing a control-regulating variable by means of the control-regulating unit depending on the outer cable force and the predetermined cable drive operating state, producing the traction sheave cable force by means of the device and influencing the traction sheave cable force by means of the control-regulating unit in such a way that the cable winch force acting on the cable drive can be controlled depending on the respective cable drive operating state and the outer cable force, wherein the device is a traction sheave drive, wherein a four-quadrant operation of the traction sheave drive is reproduced by means of the control-regulating unit, and wherein the four traction sheave drive operating states are no-load lifting, no-load lowering, load lifting and load lowering.

An unmanned robot system for a tethered robot, for example, a tethered aircraft, is disclosed. The unmanned system, in one embodiment, includes an unmanned aircraft tethered to a ground station by a tether cable. In one embodiment, an aerial winch and cable unit is provided on the aircraft to manage cable release. Alternatively, winch and cable units may be provided on both the aircraft and ground station. As the aircraft is now able to freely operate cable release to overcome any disturbances along the cable length, the operational effectiveness of the aircraft is greatly improved.

An unmanned robot system for a tethered robot, for example, a tethered aircraft, is disclosed. The unmanned system, in one embodiment, includes an unmanned aircraft tethered to a ground station by a tether cable. In one embodiment, an aerial winch and cable unit is provided on the aircraft to manage cable release. Alternatively, winch and cable units may be provided on both the aircraft and ground station. As the aircraft is now able to freely operate cable release to overcome any disturbances along the cable length, the operational effectiveness of the aircraft is greatly improved.

Provided is a crane and a control method capable of preventing an irregular winding from being caused, without significant deterioration in work efficiency. The crane includes an allowable deceleration rate derivation unit and a winch control unit. The allowable deceleration rate derivation unit derives an allowable deceleration rate representing an allowable value of the deceleration rate of the winding of a suspension rope, from a measured load that is a suspension load measured by a load measurement device. The allowable deceleration rate derivation unit derives the allowable deceleration rate that is decreased with a decrease in the measured load. The winch control unit makes the winding of the suspension rope by a winch device decelerated at a deceleration rate limited within a range equal to or less than the allowable deceleration rate.

A winch control system is disclosed. The winch control system may be used to control or operate a winch on a vehicle in a selected mode, such as a plow mode. The winch control system may include or receive input from selected sensors relative to the vehicle to assist in control and operation of the winch.

When a holding unit is lowered, a control unit gradually increases the lowering velocity of the holding unit toward a target lowering velocity, performs a constant velocity lowering operation of maintaining the lowering velocity of the holding unit at the target lowering velocity, and then gradually decreases the lowering velocity of the holding unit from the target lowering velocity to stop the holding unit. The control unit controls the drive unit to gradually increase the rotational velocity of the pulleys in response to a gradual decrease in the diameter of the outer surface of the belt wound-up around the pulley by unwinding in the constant velocity lowering operation.

A cable winch (100) for deploying and retracting a cable (50) during the installation of powerline cables on transmission towers. The cable winch (100) includes a base frame (102), a spool (110), a drive system (120), a sensor system (200), and a control system (300). The spool (110) is mounted for rotation on the base frame (102) and the cable (50) is releasably securable to the spool (110). The drive system (120) is able to drive rotation of the spool (110) to either pay out or wind in the cable (50) along a cable path. The cable path passes through the sensor system (200), which has a first sensor (244) able to detect and output tension data in relation to the tension in the cable (50) passing through the sensor system (200). The control system (300) is adapted to receive the tension data output by the sensor system (200) and modulate the speed and torque of the drive system (120) in order to maintain a predetermined tension in the cable (50).