The Design and Development of an Automatic Construction Crane

Abstract

This paper describes the design and development of an automatic crane for use in the assembly of modular buildings elements in the construction site. The automatic system was developed using a commercial crane, which was modified by adding the adequate sensors, servomotors and an advanced control system. The new crane system is meant to work in an automatic or semi-automatic manner to achieve the assembly of modules following the sequence established during the design process. The assembly path shall be readjusted to compensate for the deviations between the planned and actual loading positions of the modules to be assembled. A special handling platform was designed to allow the grasping of the modules via electromagnets and female conical locators/connectors. The male conical connectors are part of building modules themselves, and are also used to ensure the connection between modules. The cranes system is controlled via computer using a multi-axes control board implementing adequate algorithms to ensure a smooth movement and prevent the undesired swinging effects. The system is operated via a Man Machine Interface (MMI) installed in the control computer, which make use of new features as well as via the traditional push button pendant used in commercial cranes. Although the system is currently functional, new features such as the security system and the image processing modules are still under development.