Automation for Mobile Crane Motion Planning in Industrial Projects

Abstract

-Mobile cranes are used to lift heavy modules in industrial projects. These heavy modules are often prefabricated and each project consists of a large number of lifts (e.g., a typical industrial project may have between 150 and 1000 modules to be lifted). To ensure the safety and efficiency of these lifting activities, crane motion planning is needed. However, in practice, most of the heavy lift studies are, at best, performed semiautomatically and still require significant manual work. In addition to being inefficient, this approach is also characterized by a high error rate, especially in the context of congested construction sites, not to mention its slow response to changes in work order or project scope. For instance, if a module is delayed, the crane motion planning may need to be redesigned (at least partially) since the configuration of the obstacles on the construction site no longer conforms to what had been assumed in the original planning. This paper thus proposes a generic model for mobile crane motion planning that can be implemented in industrial projects. The proposed approach considers the typical site constraints and performs automatic planning for the entire site. An industrial project with more than 100 modules is selected for validation of the proposed method. 3D visualization is also developed to demonstrate the lifts in a 3D Studio Max environment.

A Predictive Analytics Framework for Mobile Crane Configuration Selection in Heavy Industrial Construction Projects

“…Future work for this research is proposed in three main areas: to improve the developed model in this research, develop a 3D visualization for the crane selection algorithm, and begin the integration of this algorithm with previously developed algorithms for lift planning such as Automated Crane Planning and Optimization (ACPO) and Crane Motion Planning that have been designed for PCL Industrial Management to automate the process of checking the capacity and clearances of a crane [3,24,30]. (1) Model improvement: Even though this paper investigated automated mobile crane selection, other cranes still need to be appropriately studied, such as tower and derrick cranes.…”

“…For example, for industrial projects in Alberta, Canada, a dual-crane lift of a single vessel (Demag CC1800 and Manitowoc 4100) costs CAD 320,000, including the rental cost, mobilization/demobilization, and ground preparation [3]. Therefore, cranes should be utilized efficiently to ensure that the projects are successful and productive and avoid budget overruns, schedule delays, and safety issues [3,4]. In practice, the lifting schedules of cranes are managed according to the demand, urgency, and priority of the tasks.…”

Utilization of Virtual Reality Visualizations on Heavy Mobile Crane Planning for Modular Construction

“…Modules (e.g. pipe racks or vessels) are offsite prefabricated elements that assembled in module yards and shipped to the site for installation [1]. A set of modules constructs a larger structure.…”

Opposing influences on construction plant and machinery health and safety innovations

“…• improvement of operator protection from overturn, using optimally designed protective structures (Karliński et al, 2008); • machine "pose" estimation to help avoid excavator collisions (Feng et al, 2015); • radio-frequency identification for correct choice and safer use of excavator attachments (Rinneberg et al, 2015); • work environment analysis to design safer plant motion (Lei et al, 2014;Hammad et al, 2015, Vahdatikhaki andHammad 2015a;Zhang et al, 2015); • object tracking to mitigate machine contact incidents Caldas, 2010, 2012;Vahdatikhaki and Hammad, 2015b); • proximity detection for avoidance of "struck-by" incidents (Teizer et al, 2010(Teizer et al, , 2015Teizer, 2015aTeizer, , 2015b; and • electronic remote control for "autonomous" P&M (Yamamoto et al, 2009;Kang et al, 2013;Trung et al, 2013;Lee et al, 2015).…”

“…However, the applied nature of this research domain suggests that successful H&S innovations often depend on effective collaboration between academia and industry (Bergquist et al, 2013). Some recent examples include collaboration between a large Canadian constructor [sic] and the University of Alberta to validate mobile crane planning solutions (Lei et al, 2014) and three-dimensional (3D) laser-scanning pipeline defect detection, in collaboration with a live petrochemical plant in South Korea (Son et al, 2014).…”