Optimizing GPS-guidance transit route for cable crane collision avoidance using artificial immune algorithm

A cable crane collision accident usually causes serious damage to workers, equipment and materials. Owing to the emergence of global position system (GPS), some new collision avoidance and guidance systems have been developed and applied in many large-scale civil engineering projects. However, it is very difficult to find an optimal GPS-guidance transit route with safety and efficiency based on experience among complex three-dimensional working situations. Our objective is to make use of the artificial immune algorithm to optimize the GPS-guidance transit route for cable crane collision avoidance under two different working situations. A comprehensive evaluation function that merges the consideration of reliability, convenience and cost with respect to the GPS-guidance transit route has been established to assess the cable crane transit route. We used the engineering case of the Dagangshan hydropower station to test our algorithm. The results suggest that the artificial immune algorithm can effectively and stably determine the optimal route under a complex environment. The analysis of optimization performance indicates that the proposed optimization approach fully considers comprehensive performance. It reveals that the collision risk changes with the elevation of the cable crane within a three-dimensional space. These findings allow us to reasonably make use of the GPS-guidance function to achieve cable crane collision avoidance more efficiently.