Cranes are the hallmark of a growing city. Do you ever take a moment, as you travel to your local city, and look at the tower cranes, helping to put together new developments? They’re an amazing sight – and fascinating to watch, as they help put the pieces together in contemporary construction. Whether it’s towering skyscrapers or smaller-scale projects, mobile crane hire Perth plays a crucial role in ensuring that construction work is completed safely and efficiently.
As technology has evolved, cranes have reached ever greater heights – helping to build wondrous developments, such as Dubai’s Burj Khalifa, and Singapore’s Marina Bay Sands. While crane servicing in Victoria forms an essential part of every crane’s operating life, eventually, they’ll be upgraded with new and improved technologies.
How could new crane technology shape the way that we build modern cities? While it seems that we’re a long way from automation, it’s interesting to consider the opportunities that new and developing technologies have for cranes in our constantly constructing world.
The Challenge of Introducing New Technology
New technology can be incredibly powerful. Take, for example, the iPhone – while some smartphones existed before it, Apple’s device pivoted the mobile device market where phones were not simply just something you took and received calls with – now you can do anything with them that you could on a conventional computer, from doing your banking to playing video games.
Technology adoption can be a tricky business, however – and introducing new technology to cranes is no exception. There has been a lot of noise made in the media about the benefits of Artificial Intelligence – and the notion that it will eliminate a lot of jobs. This sort of fearmongering causes anxiety and confusion in workers and can cause resistance to change in the workplace.
It’s important to reinforce the idea that while new technologies will come into the workplace, jobs aren’t necessarily at risk. Technology innovations look to empower crane operators with more information, rather than taking control away from them.
There is always a risk that an accident can occur – with or without technology, as we’ve seen with the recent collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore. Ultimately, it’s up to those that use technology to ensure that is safe and reliable for operators to use.
The Power of Telematics
A simple way to enhance cranes is to simply bring in more data. Much like the way that Tesla has revolutionised the motoring world with its passion for data collection, telematics can be a powerful tool in enhancing the capabilities of most cranes.
Telematics may seem like a term with a long history, but curiously, the concept was first conceived in the 1970s. Simply put, telematics is a concept that describes the convergence of information technology with telecommunications. Using multiple systems, such as GPS and sensor data, telematics has a broad variety of uses in the transport and rental sector – allowing rental managers to monitor fleet cars, and operations managers to monitor the status of their vehicles.
Integrating telematics technologies into cranes could represent a seismic shift in how crane operators manage loads. Imagine, a crane operator empowered with sensor data that allows them to account for wind, other crane operations, and potential obstacles, using the optimal possible route to pick up and move loads.
Telematics can be a powerful tool, empowering crane operators with the information they need to work more efficiently. It can even help to improve safety standards, and may reduce the risk of injury on worksites – consider a robot being able to identify if a worker is standing under a crane load, in a blind spot. By pausing a drop, and alerting the worker, a potentially fatal workplace accident is avoided.
Integrating Robotics with Construction
Working in construction can be a dangerous business. According to data published by Safe Work Australia, over the fourteen years between 2008 and 2022, there were 459 individuals killed on the job.
Nobody goes to work with the expectation that they won’t be home again. When a construction worker dies on the job, it can be especially traumatic for families. Work Safe Victoria, the workplace health and safety regulator, once published a television commercial demonstrating the emotional impact that a workplace accident can have on a family.
Cranes, by necessity, operate in dangerous environments – they’re not immune to failure by any means – for example, Taipei 101 had not one, but two crane collapses occur during construction. Using robotics to create environments that would enable crane operators to complete their work, while increasing safety, would go a long way in reducing some of the risks that are present in crane operation.
For example, a type of robotics that is present in modern maritime crane operations is the notion of a remote control centre. Crane operators have access to the same controls that they would if they were in the control box of the crane, but instead, they don’t have to climb into said crane box and put themselves at physical risk.
Integrating robotics with cranes allows for all sorts of interesting opportunities. Freelance journalist Will North, writing for Cranes Today Magazine, proposed the notion that with video and data transfer at a sufficiently high enough bitrate, we could potentially see crane operators work from the comfort of their own homes. Empowered by improved telemetrics, their work could become much more efficient, with reduced waiting times and improved efficiencies due to optimal load path movements. All in all, the future looks to be exciting for crane operators around the globe.
Forecasting the Future of Construction Robotics
What could the future of construction robotics hold?
What do the next twenty-five years hold for construction professionals?
It looks that, for now, AI will continue to be a buzzword that gets discussed around the industry. However, outside of guided vision and optimised load paths, it doesn’t appear that AI will have a significant impact on the construction industry at this stage.
As more and more devices come online, however, it looks almost certain that telematics products will help form the backbone of the next generation of crane work. In a world that looks to find the most efficient processes possible to minimise impacts on the environment, it’s entirely possible that the next generation of crane operators won’t recognise the work that crane operators do today.
No matter whether you love cranes or hate them, you have to admit – there’s never been a better time to be in construction.
