NOVEMBER 2022 Ӏ REMOTE CONTROLS


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assembly by local service technicians. This would have been extremely difficult, if not outright impossible, under the travel restrictions in place when the cranes arrived, in May 2020. Instead, two of Liebherr


Argentina’s service technicians, Alan Irazoqui and Cristian Bovino, would, for the first time, assemble the crane on their own. But they were not without support. Back in Rostock, service engineer Nils Liesner was able to follow their work using Liebherr’s Remote Service tool. Ahead of work starting,


customer service manager Christian Lubke reports, cameras were installed in the harbour and the Argentinian mechanics were equipped with mobile phones, whose high-quality cameras they could use to send Liesner close-up photos over the app. Irazoqui and Bovino had a 60-page installation guide to work from. But the company was not confident this would be enough. Initially, they worked by sending still photos from their phone. But, once a robust internet connection was in place, Liesner could follow their work more closely. Each morning, online meetings were used to plan out the day’s tasks and to share his experience on the most efficient way to work, just as if he was on site with them. Now the Covid crisis has eased, the company is likely to return to on site supervision of crane installation. But, when maintenance is required, customers and local service staff will be able to receive support, without waiting on a technician to fly from Rostock. The company is already using VR goggles for service support in its aerospace division, and these may also find a use for crane service. In day-to-day operation,


Liebherr’s Remote Operator Station 90 CRANES TODAY


allows for port crane operators to work from an office. The system looks rather like a standard office desk, with multiple built in displays, and control devices. It allows operators to control their crane, just as they would if they were working from the cab. Late in 2021, Liebherr delivered


four ship-to-shore cranes and 12 rubber-tyred gantries to the port of Duqm in Oman. Supplied without a cabin, the cranes will be operated utilising a combination of remote control and automation. Automation will take care of the majority of the cycle with operator intervention only required when operating below a predefined safe height.


The cranes at Duqm are


networked together using a mesh system. Traditional communications networks take a hub-and-spoke approach: on a local network, all data is transferred through a router; on a wider scale, similar tools connect all of an ISPs network to the internet, and so on. Mesh networks are employed at home, on systems like Eero, Nest or Orbi. Each part of the network communicates back and forth with its neighbours, increasing the robustness and reach of the network. On a port, or a busy tower crane site, this approach reduces the risk of losing communications with the crane at a vital moment. Similar systems are now being


used away from ports, in industrial environments. Systems integrator TruTegra installed a system like this at an aluminium casthouse in a remote part of Canada. The plant is in continuous operation, with multiple bridge cranes used to transport ladles of molten aluminium and pour ingots for the rolling mill. Mobile vehicles are present in the area along with foot traffic.


The company considered two


approaches to presenting a view of crane operations to the operator: VR goggles, and a projection dome. After trying both, the company decided that the vertigo some users experience when using goggles made the projection dome a better option. TrutTegra used stereoscopic


streaming and player software to manage multiple cameras and to produce the stitched image for both the 3D goggles and for the projection dome, before settling on the latter for the finished system. In addition, position data from the crane was transmitted back into the vision system to produce visual enhancements (lines and hash marks) that show the operator a projection of the hook onto the floor, as well as HMI (human- machine interface) and fault data. The cameras on the crane needed to be protected from the extreme environment. Multiple vantage points had to be provided since the process of grappling the ladles and pouring the ingots requires extremely good awareness and control.


Multiple cameras mounted on the mobile crane created very large amounts of streaming data, which was managed by the streamer software. Custom driver software and application software was developed to create augmented reality (AR) features to aid the operator. A two metre spherical projection dome was constructed and equipped with three projectors to display the live streaming image with augmented reality for the operator. The operator can switch vantage points as needed to manipulate the crane and its load.


AUTOMATED LOAD PATHS A key skill for tower crane operators is moving the load as swiftly as possible, selecting the best path from picking up the load to placing it. But could a machine do f


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