REMOTE CONTROLS Ӏ NOVEMBER 2022


operator could cut some costs, this will be constrained by risks inherent in mixing human- and machine- operated vehicles on public roads. But on large sites, tower crane and crawler crane owners may see some more immediate opportunities. In many ways, multiple tower cranes working on a big project are similar to port cranes. Their positions relative to each other are generally fixed, or follow rails, making it easier to plan out all their possible movements and interactions. Tower crane positions on a large site are designed to offer efficient coverage across the site. Just as much as a well deployed fleet can ensure a load can be lifted from anywhere, so tower cranes fitted with mesh networking could provide robust data coverage, for themselves and for other networked equipment. On any crane, many operators


spend much of their time in the cab idle. By using an autonomous system, like those being developed by Syracuse and SMCC, idling time


could be further reduced, with the operator only needing to directly supervise the more challenging lifts. With each crane on site only requiring occasional operator intervention, one operator could be assigned to multiple cranes. That could allow them to work from a desk, using something like Hiab’s HiVision, Liebherr’s remote operating system, or TruTegra’s virtual reality projection dome. Perhaps initially, that would


require them to work from a purpose-designed site office. But we have seen from Liebherr’s experience supervising crane installation in Argentina from an office in Rostock, that global-scale networking is now sufficient to allow for reliable video and data transfer. Perhaps in the future, experience crane operators and service technicians will be able to work from their offices, or even their homes, supervising the erection of cranes by local riggers, and operating multiple cranes from anywhere in


CLS using Vita Inclinata’s Load Navigator to erect a tower crane


the world that suits them. This might be of particular


interest to those small countries and city-states that wish to build world-beating skyscrapers, but lack a local workforce and do not, perhaps, offer the warmest of welcomes to foreign workers. Rather than a crane operator migrating from India to the Middle East, and putting up with the restrictions they might face there, could they not work in an office in Bangalore, keeping up their normal life and social connections, while saving the client money? Another potential starting


point for autonomous lifting might be on large crawler crane sites. On a large wind farm, operators will spend much of their time moving crawlers from one hard stand to the next. With a system like SafeAI’s, this part of the job could perhaps be performed autonomously, with operators working between multiple cranes, once they had arrived at their location and been set up.


CRANES TODAY 95


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