To provide a traveling crane operation control apparatus and method enabling an operator to operate a traveling crane quickly and accurately by one hand and by a motion of his or her body with a controller worn thereon, without the need to
gaze at his or her hand, and also allowing variable-speed control and fine speed control of each drive unit.An operation control apparatus for a traveling crane has an operation
control circuit section 1 including a base unit 2 wearable on an arm 4 of an operator and a
control unit 3 operable by a hand. The base unit 2 has base unit tilt detecting means detecting a tilt direction and tilt angle of the base unit 2 in a
vertical plane, base unit direction detecting means detecting a direction in which the base unit 2 points in a horizontal plane, and command
signal generating means generating a travel command
signal and a travel speed command
signal for a travel motor, a
traverse command signal and a
traverse speed command signal for a
traverse motor, and an elevation command signal and an elevation speed command signal for an elevation motor. The traveling crane can be controlled to perform travel, traverse, lifting and lowering operations simply by pointing the base unit 2 in a direction in which travel and traverse motions are desired to occur and in a vertical direction in which a lifting or lowering motion is desired to occur, and actuating the
control unit 3.