Mobile Crane Mode Management for Collision Safety
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current collision avoidance systems for cranes in job sites face significant productivity losses and potential delays when a mobile crane's positioning defects occur, as they often trigger fail-safe controls that restrict all cranes from operating, even if the defect only affects a specific area, leading to unnecessary shutdowns across the entire site.
Innovation Solution
A system for managing working modes of mobile cranes, which includes position sensors, a module to define working modes (displacement, fixed work, parking), and a communication device to share these modes with other cranes, allowing the system to differentiate between mobile cranes in displacement and fixed work modes, thereby limiting the prohibited area and maintaining productivity.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If fail-safe control is activated when a mobile crane's position is unknown, then collision safety is improved, but productivity deteriorates due to site-wide shutdowns
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by differentiating the treatment of unknown position areas based on crane working mode. For mobile cranes in displacement mode, the entire job site is treated as a prohibited area (local quality = high restriction). For mobile cranes in fixed work mode, only the specific area around the crane is treated as prohibited (local quality = localized restriction). This allows other areas of the job site to remain operational, maintaining productivity while ensuring safety.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent segments the job site into different prohibited areas based on the working mode of mobile cranes. Instead of treating the entire job site as a single prohibited area when any mobile crane has unknown position, the system divides the restriction zone according to each crane's operational state. This segmentation allows simultaneous operation of cranes in different zones, resolving the contradiction between safety and productivity.
2Reliability
If the entire job site is treated as a prohibited area when a mobile crane's position is unknown, then collision risk is reduced, but operational flexibility deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies dynamics by making the prohibited area dynamic and adaptive to the working mode of mobile cranes. The restriction zone automatically adjusts its scope: when a mobile crane is in displacement mode, the entire job site becomes prohibited; when in fixed work mode, only the local area around the crane is prohibited. This dynamic adaptation maintains collision avoidance while preserving operational flexibility for different working scenarios.
Data Source
AI summary
A system for managing working modes of a mobile crane in a job site, the system comprising:a position sensor for the mobile crane in the job site,a position sensor for the hook of the mobile crane relative to a reference point of said mobile crane,a module for managing the working mode of the mobile crane configured to define the working mode of the mobile crane selected from:the “displacement” mode corresponding to a displacement of the mobile crane in the job site,the “fixed work” mode corresponding to a situation in which the mobile crane is fixed in the job site and the position of its hook is variable,a communication device configured to communicate an indication of the working mode of the mobile crane to at least one other crane of the job site.