Sensor-Based Planning Tool for Tower Crane Anti-Collision Monitoring on Construction Sites

Construction sites are always prone to delays and accidents especially when tower cranes are involved. This situation exacerbates when more than one crane is used and the possibility of collisions occurring in the overlapping work zones becomes high. As such, early planning of joint tower crane operations prior to job execution helps prevent delays and bottlenecks in project schedule and enhance site safety. This in turn incurs less operational construction costs. However, clashes are hard to quantify and assess during the planning stage. Building on recent advances in construction planning, site management, simulation, and sensing, this paper aims at developing an automated planning tool for monitoring tower crane anti-collision on construction sites. The purpose behind this research is three-fold: (1) studying optimal sensors' type and location on different parts of the cranes, (2) acquiring hypothetical comprehensive data from sensors, and (3) integrating collected data into a 4D schedule to avoid crane clashes and reduce operations' duration. A case example is presented and preliminary results highlight the potential of planning, sensing and simulation techniques in optimizing joint crane operation while avoiding collisions.