Integrating field data and 3D simulation for tower crane activity monitoring and alarming

Visual monitoring and alarming is an effective way to avoid accidents and to increase the efficiency of project management in the construction industry. It is not feasible to use a camera in a remote monitoring and alarming system for a tower crane due to the low transmission rate of a wireless network. Instead of a camera-monitoring system, a data-driven remote monitoring and alarming system for tower cranes is developed, which integrates field data and 3D simulation. A smart Controller Area Network (CAN) Bus-based data acquisition and transmission system that conforms to standard IEEE 1451.2 is designed to improve the flexibility and quantity of information acquisition. A Module-Position-Attitude-Scale (MPAS) method for describing the parts of a tower crane is used, allowing the virtual crane to be built more easily through parameterization and modularization. A hierarchical architecture of the tower crane is analyzed, and then a robot-like kinematic model is deduced in which the virtual tower crane is driven by the parameters transmitted from the field sensors. The activities reconstruction process for the simulation is improved using the Event Triggering and Variation Computing (ETVC) method. An experience-based and practical alarming system is embedded into the virtual monitoring system. Finally, two application cases are implemented and popularized by users. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.