A laser-technology-based lifting-path tracking system for a robotic tower crane

As the number of high-rise buildings increases, so does the use of tower cranes, the number of which now tops 3000 per year in Korea. Accordingly, the safety issues of high workspaces and efficiency issues of repeated work arise in the process of lifting materials to high places. As an alternative to traditional tower cranes, we are developing a robotic tower-crane system. By developing a robotic crane system, we expect the productivity to improve by 9.9%–50% based on the results of previous studies. In this study, we examine the feasibility of a laser-technology-based lifting-path tracking system for a robotic tower-crane system. There have been efforts to develop a robotic tower crane but they could travel only through preplanned paths or had blind stop problems. We proposed a robotic tower-crane system with a laser device, an encoder, and an accelerometer, and tested the feasibility of the system under indoor, outdoor, and swinging conditions. In the process, we developed a software application to receive and record data from the laser device. The test results showed the feasibility of a proposed lifting-path tracking system for a robotic tower crane under various outdoor conditions. Several limitations have been also recognized.