Development of a Real-time Lifting-path Tracking System of a Tower-crane for Steel Members based on an Integrated Wireless RF Modem and GPS System

Steel frame construction in high places entails many risk factors. In order to improve the safety and productivity of steel frame construction, a project to develop a robotic tower-crane has been undertaken. As the first step, a real-time lifting-path tracking system is being developed. In a previous study, a laser-based tracking system was proposed. While a laser-based tracking system requires at least three laser sensors to detect the x, y, z coordinates of a lifted steel member, a GPS-based system has an advantage over the laser-based system, in that the x, y, z coordinates of a lifted steel member can be detected by a single GPS sensor. To improve the accuracy, arelative positioning method using two GPS sensors was proposed in a previous study. This paper reports an improved GPS-based lifting-path tracking system of a tower crane based on an integrated RF modem and GPS system. The results showedthat the RF modem could successfully send the identifier information to a server a maximum distance of 1 km away from the lifted steel beam, and the lifting path information of each beam captured by the GPS-based tracking system was successfully saved together. Also, byusing an improved algorithm for the GPS relative positioning method, the deviation was reduced to 0.61 m on average.

무선 RF모뎀과 GPS를 통합한 타워크레인의 철골부재의 실시간 양중위치 추적시스템 개발

철골공사는 고소에서 작업을 하며 많은 위험요소가 따르며, 안전성과 생산성을 향상시키기 위해 로보틱 크레인개발을 위한 프로젝트가 진행되었다. 그 첫 번째 단계로서 실시간 양중위치를 추적하는 시스템을 개발하였는데, 본 연구에서는 이를 위하여 x, y, z 좌표를 쉽게 얻을 수 있는 GPS 센서를 사용하였다. 또한, 본 연구에서는 데이터의 정확도를 향상시키기 위해 2대의 GPS센서를 사용하였으며, RF모뎀을 이용한 무선인식 태그와 함께 통합된 양중경로 추적 시스템을 개발하였다. 개발된 무선인식 태그와 RF모뎀 기반의 GPS 센서는 함께 최대 1 km까지 안정적으로 신호를 전송할 수 있으며, GPS의 상대측위기법을 사용하여 그 오차를 평균 0.61 m까지 줄일 수 있다.