Heavy Crane Research Articles

Enhancing Organizational Performance: Harnessing AI and NLP for User Feedback Analysis in Product Development

This paper explores the application of AI and NLP techniques for user feedback analysis in the context of heavy machine crane products. By leveraging AI and NLP, organizations can gain insights into customer perceptions, improve product development, enhance satisfaction and loyalty, inform decision-making, and gain a competitive advantage. The paper highlights the impact of user feedback analysis on organizational performance and emphasizes the reasons for using AI and NLP, including scalability, objectivity, improved accuracy, increased insights, and time savings. The methodology involves data collection, cleaning, text and rating analysis, interpretation, and feedback implementation. Results include sentiment analysis, word cloud visualizations, and radar charts comparing product attributes. These findings provide valuable information for understanding customer sentiment, identifying improvement areas, and making data-driven decisions to enhance the customer experience. In conclusion, promising AI and NLP techniques in user feedback analysis offer organizations a powerful tool to understand customers, improve product development, increase satisfaction, and drive business success.

Design calculations and study of the assembly and technological indicators of coating's consolidated structural blocks


 The article considers and implements the calculation model of the system using the design and calculation complex LIRA. The features of load perception and their rational distribution between structural elements are analyzed. The stress-strain state is calculated, taking into account the subsequent installation of the structure. The approach to determining the labor-intensiveness and duration of consolidation processes during the installation of structural blocks of the covering, which is caused by atypical structural and technological solutions, is considered.
 Modern approaches to the process of consolidation of structural blocks of coatings are analyzed. The use of load-lifting assembly modules is proposed to reduce the specific share of the use of heavy crane equipment at the construction site. The method of installation of a structural coating with the use of heavy crane equipment and load-lifting installation modules is compared.

Learning From Field Testing Experiences for Developing Small Scale Tidal Current Energy Conversion System

Tidal current energy conversion system (TCECS) has been tested in potential straits such as the Larantuka Strait and Madura Strait. In its development, the technology will be improved by increasing its capacity to 100 kW. The new capacity is planned to use a farming system with vertical axis turbines. The experience of installing and operating a TCECS prototype with a capacity of 10-20 kW in Indonesia could be a valuable experience for the implementation phase of a TCECS with a higher capacity. This paper aims to report the experience of TCECS installation in Indonesia. According to previous installation experience, TCECS was made floating using a catamaran type as a supporting structure. This was done to facilitate the transportation process from the production site to the installation site. TCECS production was carried out in an area that is quite far from the installation area because there is not enough land around it to assemble or produce the technology. This condition is one of the factors that need to be considered in the TCECS installation step in Indonesia. Another factor to consider is the size of the TCECS technology to be utilized. The Installation facilities in Indonesia, especially in the eastern region, have been yet inadequate in using large equipment, e.g., a heavy crane. Therefore, the dimensions of the TCECS to be installed should not have large dimensions. To take the experience of the installation, other factors are described in several chapters in this paper.

Crane Mat Layout Optimization Based on Agent-Based Greedy and Reinforcement-Learning Approach

The growing prevalence of modular construction, while it offers benefits in terms of productivity and sustainability, has led to increased use of heavy mobile cranes and related resources on construction sites. One significant resource associated with crane use is the crane mat, which offers practical mobile crane ground support against poor soil-bearing capacity. Due to increased use of crane mats, crane mat layout plans/drawings have become increasingly significant in today’s construction industry. The present work describes an automated crane mat optimization framework for preparing crane mat layout plans/drawings built on an agent-based greedy algorithm and reinforcement learning. The proposed framework employs these approaches to achieve the maximum area with the minimum number of crane mats. The proposed framework is found to decrease the time required for preparing a crane mat layout plan/drawing (approximately 97% time saving) with more uniform and efficient crane mat planning outcomes (approximately 63% crane mat material reduction).

Hierarchical coupling control of cable-driven multi-loop crane for underactuated positioning

For the low-cost anti-swing retrofit of existing offshore heavy cranes, a (2-UPPU/UPU)UP multi-loop configuration with six cable-driven prismatic pairs and a UP underactuated pendulum is introduced. Each UPPU branch contains a fast-moving prismatic pair and a slow-moving one. A configuration tracking method utilizing three slow cable motions in 2-UPPU/UPU is proposed by motion compensation technology. A multi-loop underactuated end positioning scheme is given to achieve the cargo's horizontal positioning in inertia frame, i.e., two fast cable motions in 2-UPPU are used to drive four states comprising their tracking trajectories and two cargo swings, which frees the wave compensation and swing suppression task from crane joints and retains the original crane system. A hierarchical coupling controller with a special coupling relation matrix is designed, where the matrix-based sub-controller fusion technique provides a standardized design approach with distinct physical meaning for the application of hierarchical methodology in underactuated multi-loop systems. The stability analysis by Lyapunov method reveals multiple coupling relation matrices matching stability conditions, giving birth to five attractive coupling control modes. Simulations and experiments are conducted to compare and verify performance.

Investigation of labour intensity and duration of the assembly processes of structural covering blocks

The article considers an approach to determining the labor-intensiveness and duration of consolidation processes during the installation of structural blocks of the covering, which is caused by atypical structural and technological solutions. The relevance of this work is the need for a qualitative analysis of methods for calculating the labor intensity and duration of technological processes when justifying and making decisions regarding the organization and mechanization of assembly processes.
 Modern technologies of installation of structural blocks of coatings are analyzed. The analysis of labor costs was carried out for the option of using load-lifting assembly modules to reduce the specific share of the use of heavy crane equipment at the construction site. In comparison, the method of installing a structural coating using heavy crane equipment and load-lifting assembly modules is considered.
 To ensure the principle of comparison of options, the processes of column installation, stand installation, block consolidation, block installation, and installation and movement of a crane or assembly lifting and gathering modules are included in the consideration. All calculations were performed in tabular form according to the formula of the integer normalization method. Based on the results of the study, all the components of the labor intensity and duration of the processes were determined, on the basis of which the schedules of the consolidation and installation of the SBP blocks were built.

APPLICATION OF FUNCTIONAL TECHNOLOGICAL MODULES IN THE MAINTENANCE OF BRIDGE SUPPORTS

Purpose. Inspection and operation of bridge structures to determine their operational condition is an urgent task in modern conditions on the territory of Ukraine. Methodology. The life cycle of a bridge and bridge piers includes the main stages: initial erection of bridge piers and arrangement of its web; operation of the bridge; repair of supports/canvas; disposal of the bridge. Increasing the level of mechanization in bridge maintenance is a key factor in the efficiency of the work process. At the same time, the technological features significantly depend on the functions of the equipment, its design, and the features of the work. The formation of a park of equipment in the form of technological modules that perform specific functions is effective. Findings. The developed load-lifting module for maintenance of bridge piers allows you to significantly reduce the use of heavy crane equipment and significantly ensure the performance of manual assembly processes. In addition, the construction of the assembly platform, equipped with means of automating the process of securing the installer in the working area, is proposed. Originality. It is proposed to use mechanized technological means according to the modular principle, in which a module performing a separate function is used to implement certain technological operations. Practical value of the developed complex of mechanized equipment, which includes a load-lifting module and an assembly platform. Peculiarities of the organization of the park of mechanization of construction processes based on the principle of modular organization dictate the consideration of technological equipment in the form of functional blocks that realize certain technological tasks. Comprehensive consideration of the needs of construction process support along with the unification of technological equipment, giving it the functions of mechanization and automation allow to effectively fill the information system of service, in particular, of bridge structures.

Design of Prototype Load Moment Indicator on Mobile Crane using Microcontroller based on Lifting Load Chart

A load moment indicator (LMI) is an electronic device on heavy equipment cranes that can provide information and a warning system to operators in the event of an overload during the lifting load process. This tool has a very important role because it provides accessible information to the operator about the safe working load (SWL) that the crane can lift. Mobile cranes have a high accident potential when compared to tower cranes, and this is because mobile cranes have high mobility. In this paper, a prototype LMI has been made on a mobile crane based on a microcontroller that can provide value. The method used is an algorithm to find the closest value from the lifting load chart of a crane car. The programming algorithm is still manual, namely by equating and comparing boom crane conditions such as boom length, boom angle, and radius contained in the lifting load chart with the results of measuring boom crane conditions by sensors. The nearest value search algorithm follows the rules of how to read the mobile crane lifting load chart. The test results show that the sensors used to measure boom length, boom angle, and actual load each have a maximum relative error of 0.92%, 8%, and 4%, respectively. Meanwhile, to find the SWL value, the comparison scanning method can provide the SWL value according to the lifting load chart of the mobile crane. It can provide accurate information on whether the lifting load process is safe or overloaded.

Crane-lift path planning for high-rise modular integrated construction through metaheuristic optimization and virtual prototyping

Heavy crane lifting in high-rise modular integrated construction (MiC) is critical but challenging. The current crane-lift executions are heavily reliant on human judgment. Few studies on crane-lift path planning considered modular-specific characteristics such as installation of hefty modules. Therefore, this study aims to develop an automatic crane-lift path planning system to achieve safe and efficient module installation in high-rise MiC. The system involves an innovative metaheuristic algorithm for path optimization and a virtual prototyping-based platform for crane-lift simulation, and was validated using a real-life MiC project. The results reveal that the proposed algorithm that combines particle swarm optimization and simulated annealing is efficient in deriving a collision-free path, and outperforms other metaheuristics. The platform was demonstrated to be effective and informative in simulating various crane lifts. This study should facilitate safe and efficient delivery of high-rise modular buildings by contributing an intelligent algorithm and a virtual simulation platform.

Space Engineering Design Concept for Installing a Spatial Heavy Crane to Ascend and Descend Payloads

Space Engineering Design Concept for Installing a Spatial Heavy Crane to Ascend and Descend Payloads

Practical profile tracking for a hydraulic press using sliding mode controller

Electro Hydraulic Servo Systems (EHSS) offer fast response in different industrial aspects such as heavy machines, cranes and robots. To obtain a precise piston profile and to achieve the designed speed, a Sliding Mode Controller (SMC) for the duration of piston extension and retraction is presented in this paper. The novelty lies in the development of a practical profile connecting the system supply pressure dynamics to the duration of piston extension and retraction. Based on the curve fitting technique, a quadratic profile is designed for a practical hydraulic press. The Sliding Mode Controller is employed to achieve repeatable tracking of the profile generated with guaranteed soft seating velocity, thereby increasing the lifetime of the hydraulic press. The performance of the proposed controller is compared with the baseline Proportional Integral Derivative (PID) controller with square wave as well as exponential wave tracking tests in simulation and experimentation which confirm the effectiveness of the proposed control scheme.

Coupling of dynamic reaction forces of a heavy load crane and ship motion responses in waves

ABSTRACT The conventional approach to dynamic analysis of ship motion response with shipboard operation equipment is usually done by establishing combined equations of motion of the multi-body system. The weakness of such methods is usually associated with the effectiveness of modelling and the simulation efficiency of computing the dynamic ship responses in waves in the time domain. In recent years, time domain simulation of nonlinear ship motion response in waves has become more and more popular. In this paper, we present coupled simulation of a heavy load crane with interactive ship motion responses in waves. The static gravitational forces of the crane system and dynamic excitation forces from the payload are applied to the ship as external forces on varying attack points of the hull during crane operations. Simulation of the crane operation is implemented in the digital twin ship platform and demonstrated meaningful physical behaviours.

Heavy mobile crane lift path planning in congested modular industrial plants using a robotics approach

Lift path planning is a significant subtask in constructability analysis, sequencing, and scheduling of congested industrial modular projects, impacting project cost, and safety. Although intuitive lift planning is still prevalent among the practitioners, this manual process might be tedious and error-prone for hundreds of lifts. This research presents an automated lift path planning method for heavy crawler cranes in no-walk scenarios employing a robotics approach. This method treats the lifted object as a three-degree-of-freedom convex mobile robot with discretized rotational and continuous translational motions. The proposed resolution-complete method models the crane capacity chart, tail-swing, and boom clearances as pseudo-obstacles in the lifted object's configuration space. By reducing the lift path planning to a graph search problem, if any, the shortest path for the planar motion of the heavy-lift, along with its optimal pick-point, is identified. The developed heavy-lift path planning method is validated via two practical case studies.

Effects of Shear Lag in Steel Box Girders of a Crane Runway

Abstract The term of shear lag is related to the discrepancies between the approximate theory of the bending of beams and their real behaviour. It refers to the increases of the bending stresses near the flange-to-web junctions and the corresponding decreases in the flange stresses away from these junctions. In the case of wide flanges of plated structures, shear lag caused by shear strains, which are neglected in the conventional theory, may be taken into account by a reduced flange width concentrated along the webs of the steel girders. In EN 1993-1-5, the concept of taking shear lag into account is based on effective width of the flange which is defined in order to have the same total normal force in the gross flange subjected to the real transverse stress distribution as the effective flange subjected to a uniform stress equal to the maximum stress of the real transverse distribution. Some aspects concerning the shear lag phenomenon and a working example for a box girder of a heavy crane runway to illustrate the determination of the shear lag effect are also presented.

An A-Star algorithm for semi-optimization of crane location and configuration in modular construction

Nowadays, the use of heavy mobile cranes in on-site construction of industrial projects has become inevitable. Due to the high rental cost of such cranes, an optimized plan is essential for the multiple crane lifts. This plan reduces the operating costs of the crane by minimizing waste time and lessens the potential of failures and accidents. However, developing an efficient lift plan can be challenging and time-consuming, considering the large number of lift options. This article presents a novel framework based on an informed search algorithm called A-star, which provides a semi-optimum lift plan based on a predetermined lifting sequence. This system talks to a comprehensive database to provide initial data. The proposed framework is applied successfully and validated in an actual modular construction project in Alberta, Canada. The results show a significant reduction in the total cost compared with the previously used lift planning algorithm.

Layout Design of Stiffened Plates for Large-Scale Box Structure under Moving Loads Based on Topology Optimization

As the main load-bearing structure of heavy machine tools, cranes, and other high-end equipment, the large-scale box structures usually bear moving loads, and the results of direct topology optimization usually have some problems: the load transfer skeleton is difficult to identify and all working conditions are difficult to consider comprehensively. In this paper, a layout design method of stiffened plates for the large-scale box structures under moving loads based on multiworking-condition topology optimization is proposed. Based on the equivalent principle of force, the box structures are simplified into the main bending functional section, main torsional functional section, and auxiliary functional section by the magnitude of loads and moments, which can reduce the structural dimension and complexity in topology optimization. Then, the moving loads are simplified to some multiple position loads, and the comprehensive evaluation function is constructed by the compromise programming method. The mathematical model of multiworking-condition topology optimization is established to optimize the functional sections. Taking a crossbeam of superheavy turning and milling machining center as an example, optimization results show that the stiffness and strength of the crossbeam are increased by 17.39% and 19.9%, respectively, while the weight is reduced by 12.57%. It shows that the method proposed in this paper has better practicability and effectiveness for large-scale box structures.

Hydrodynamic characteristics of asymmetric semi-submersible lifting platform

The research object of this article is an asymmetric semi-submersible lifting platform, which is different from the traditional semi-submersible platform. It has an asymmetric lower hull structure. A heavy crane is installed on the right side of the platform body which is larger than the other side. Based on the three-dimensional potential flow theory, the hydrodynamic performance of the asymmetric semi-submersible lifting platform under operating conditions was studied by using the numerical calculation method of the hydrodynamic calculation software AQWA by adding viscous damping coefficients, and multiple wave angles. The RAO response amplitude operator, first- and second-order wave forces, additional mass and other hydrodynamic parameters are used to analyze the characteristics of various hydrodynamic parameters of asymmetric semi-submersible lifting platforms.

Comparative Analysis Methods Fullslab Precast Erection of Cost and Time

The Indonesian government stepped up infrastructure projects in the country for logistical and economic equality equalization, infrastructure in the form of a Freeway. This study aimed to analyze and compare the costs, timing, and precise method in Fullslab Precast erection work on 1 module. The data used are primary and secondary. Using the method of removal/erection with heavy equipment cranes. For the calculation of comparative analysis is obtained by analysis of the cost and time analysis. Field observations, and direct cost analysis calculation, and not directly into the calculations that will be loaded to get the proper method to the cost and time of work. The results of the right method are method 1 Crawler Crane at Rp 206.598.086,00.

Promene mikrostrukture i mehaničkih svojstava u zoni uticaja toplote zavarenog spoja čeličnih traka klase S960MC

The TMCP (thermo-mechanically controlled processed) steels belong to the group of ultra-high strength steels, which exhibit exceptional combination of high tensile and yield strength, toughness and ductility. These steels were introduced in the heavy machinery constructions, such as heavy mobile cranes, chassis trucks and other to reduce their weight, what increases their loading capacity and ecology of transport. The high tensile and yield strength of this type of steels is obtained by the combination of the chemical composition, heat treatment and the mechanical processing. However, the heat input into the material during the welding significantly affect properties of the steel and the whole joint. In this paper are presented results of mechanical properties evaluation and structural analysis of the welds of the thin sheets made of the S960MC steel, which were welded using the GMAW procedure. The microstructural evaluation referred significant changes in the HAZ. This area contains the three sub-zones, coarse grain (CGHAZ), fine grain (FGHAZ) and intercritical zone (ICHAZ). Analysis of microhardness and the tensile tests results showed, that ICHAZ is the most critical area of the whole welded joint.

Fatigue Failure of runway beams due to wheel loads

ABSTRACTThe introduction of the Eurocode 3 led to a significantly stricter fatigue classification, especially for flange to web connections of runway beams of heavy duty cranes compared to former national design rules like DIN 4132. At present, this leads to a doubling of the cross‐sectional thicknesses, which e.g. can result into web plates with extreme thicknesses of 80 mm. Execution as well as monitoring of such flange to web connections using full penetration tee‐butt welds are quite critical and thus no longer to be realized reasonably.On this account new fatigue strengths for the runway beam specific fatigue detail “Top flange to web junction of runway beams” in EC3‐1‐9 Table 8.10 have been established within the FOSTA‐research project “Fatigue failure of runway beams due to wheel loads in heavy smeltery cranes” as recommendations for an eventually modification or even extension of the current codes. In Particular, the detail executed using full penetration tee‐butt welds has been investigated in the framework of this research project.The essential core of the methodical approach is that real existing crane runway girders have been examined, documented and evaluated in regard of fatigue failure of the flange to web connection. In this way, a direct quantitative assessment of safety against fatigue failure for the investigated detail could be derived. In addition, synthetic notch cases have been investigated numerically. The results of both methodologies have been prepared for a proposal of amendment of the current codes. This paper provides an insight into the methodological approaches and the main results achieved.