A smart crane operations assistance system using augmented reality technology

With the increasing complexity of modern construction projects, maintaining operational safety while increasing the erection speeds of cranes has become an important issue. There are four major problems in current crane operations: (1) dynamically changing working environments, (2) limited views for operators, (3) unclear communication between operators and other crew, and (4) oversimplified control interfaces impeding efficient and safe erections. This research proposes an integrated environment to provide a rich information environment to operators during the erection processes. To achieve the goal, we designed an augmented reality (AR) system with four modules: field information collector, virtual information collector, construction planner, and integrated AR display. Field information is collected by four video cameras and virtual information is collected from the building information model (BIM). Then, the construction planner module processes the information, calculates efficient erection paths and analyzes the possible risks in the erection environment. The results that can be delivered to operators are categorized into two groups: erection progress information and limitation information. To verify the feasibility of the system, we implemented a control system for the Kukarobot arm, which simulates a construction crane. Future work will include the conduct of a user test to verify the usability of the proposed system.