GENERIC METHOD TO MODEL CONSTRUCTION CRANES

Shih-Chung Kang1
ABSTRACT: This paper presents a generic method to model and simulate construction cranes in
operational details. A numerical crane model is developed in this research. This model allows users to
define articulated relationship between crane elements. The numerical model can also help precisely
visualize crane activities on computers so that the goal of virtual construction environment can be
realized. To maximize the generality of the numerical model, in this research, a construction crane is
regarded as a robot, which is composed of a series of rigid bodies connected by joints. This paper
provides a systematical approach to derive the numerical model for presenting the geometrical
relationship between these rigid bodies. This paper also demonstrates the use of the numerical model
to render realistic animation of crane motions in a virtual environment. Based on this model, the
animation can be generated and stored by using the time histories of crane motions instead of the
video formats. We can save a great portion of disk space especially in a long-period project when
rendering the animation. This modeling procedure presented in this paper can also be generalized to
model other types of construction machines to achieve the good of creating fully automated virtual
environments.
KEYWORDS: construction cranes, robotics, virtual construction, construction machines,
visualization, animation.
1

INTRODUCTION

In many of current construction projects, most construction tasks are directly or indirectly depend on
the tower cranes, mobile crane, and other types of hoisting machines. In a steel structure construction,
for example, tower cranes are in charge of transporting and installing the steel, pre-cast concrete,
windows, and so on. They not only complete tasks sequentially, but also need to deal with diverse
tasks simultaneously, such as fixing pre-cast concrete and installing windows at the same time. The
sequential and simultaneous tasks are usually difficult to coordinate on real jobsites without an
accurate planning. However, because current construction planning is mainly done by manual method,
the planners can only guess the whole process by their experiences. This method might result in poor
coordination between operators and onsite crews and sometimes even cause unsafe operations. Since
cranes are responsible for major portion of erection activities, their usages usually siginicantly
influence the performance of project.
This research is motivated by the rapid development of computer hardware and software related to
virtual reality technologies. Today we have better tools to create a virtual environment in which users
are able to explore the virtual world created by comptuers and visually experience various kinds of
events. This research aims to use the virtual reality technologies to simulate the use construction crane.
With proper modeling methods, a crane can be created virtually to simulate its operations realistically.
As long as the simulation reflects actual circumstances correctly, it can be used to preplan the
construction operations and significantly improve the productivity of the entire project. The unsafe
tasks which are difficult to be found by using manual planning methods can be avoided or at least
reduced. Besides, the virtual construction model could be used to investigate alternative designs for
1

Assistant Professor, National Taiwan University, Taiwan

sensing, site modeling distributed processing and automation on construction sites. The models
involved enable a much more realistic assessment of automation and generate more design alternatives
and strategies than are available with existing, geometric-based computer-aided design (CAD) models.
One of the major challenges to create the virtual environment for crane activities is the
time-consuming processes when we render precise each part of the crane motions. This research
focuses on the fundamental of this problemthe mathematical description for the cranes and their
manipulators in the three dimensional space. The goal of the research is to develop a generic method
for deriving numerical models of the construction cranes with systematic steps. These models can be
used to facilitate the development of virtual environments on computers.
2

RELATED RESEARCH

Construction cranes have been studied for years in a wide range of aspects, including: (1) studies of
using crane model to evaluate erection plans [1-3]; (3) the visualization of crane operations [4-6]; and
(4) robotics cranes [7, 8].
Among aforementioned research, Niaz et al. (2004)s mathematical approach for visualizing crane
motions is closely related to this research. Niaz et al. (2004) used two types of transformation
functions, transportation function T and rotation function R to describe the crane mathematically in a
virtual environment. Figure 1 presents possible motions of a tower crane. It is assumed that in each
crane activity is to move the rigging object from a pre-defined source position to a destination position.
In the figure, source position is denoted as by S(Xs, Ys, Zs), and the destination point is denoted by
D(Xd, Yd, Zd). Two intermediate points S(Xs, Ys, Zs) and D(Xd, Yd, Zd) in the path were also
defined. Three steps are involved to simulate the crane motions: (1) move the hook position from S to
S; (2) move the hook position from S to D; and (3) finally move from the hook position from D to
D.

Figure 1. Illustration of objects transformation in Niaz et al.s model

Niaz et al. (2004) used equation (1) to describe this motion.

T ( x's xs , y 's ys , z 's z s )T ( x'd x's , y 'd y 's , z 'd z 's ) R( )T ( xd x'd , yd y 'd , z d z 'd )

(1)

Where T is a 3D translation function for translating the coordinate system in Cartesian

coordinate system (the coordinates in a three dimensional system with the form of (x,y,z)). Three
parameters in T functions represent the translation on x, y, and z direction respectively; Rz is a
rotational function which rotates the coordinate system about z axis. is the angle of jib
rotation.
Although Niaz et al.s model is sufficient to visualize the standard crane movement, this model is
nearly impossible to describe detailed motions of a crane. Niaz et al.s model only considers the object
position during the rigging processes but lack of the description of crane joints or the relationship
between the joints and the objects. In other words, if the movements of all joints are given, this model
cannot find the position of the crane hook. However, this joints-hook relationship is usually very
important during simulations. The other limitation of Niaz et al.s research is that the modeling
method is developed specifically for tower cranes and may not be used to model other type of
machines. If we would like to model other type of cranes, for example, we may have to develop
another mathematical model from the beginning. Therefore, this research aims at developing a more
general method that can systematically derive the numerical model for different types of construction
machines. The same model development procedure will deliver the numerical models with compatible
formats. This will eventually benefit the implementation of a virtual environment.
3

KINEMATICS OF MANIPULATORS

The purpose of kinematics of manipulators is to describe the motions of a crane in a mathematical

format. To present a crane in a virtual environment, we treat a tower crane as a stationary robot, which
is composed of a series of rigid links (rigid bodies). In particular, we are concerned with describing the
location and position of each of the rigid bodies in a three-dimensional space. These rigid bodies
include the components of the crane (tower, jib and trolley), the hook, rigging objects, as well as other
objects in the manipulators environment. In a virtual environment, rigid bodies can be visualized by
having two attributes: (a) their positions; and (b) their orientations. This section summarizes the
procedure for developing the kinematics model of a crane, which is able to describe all the spatial
information of a crane in a virtual world.
The first step in deriving the forward kinematics is to illustrate the schematic to represent the crane.
Here we assume the parts of the crane are rigid bodies. The crane model consists of rigid links
connected by joints, which allow relative motion of neighboring links. Two types of joints are used in
the model. The first one is the revolute joint, which allows relative rotations between neighboring rigid
links. The other one is sliding connection, also called prismatic joint, which allows relative
displacement between links. Considering a horizontal tower crane in figure 2, there are two revolute
joints and two prismatic joints. From the fixed end to free end, the crane has the types of joints in the
order of revolute, prismatic, prismatic, and revolute. To simplify the name, the crane can be referred to
an R-P-P-R manipulator. The schematic presentation of the robotic crane is drawn in figure 2.
1

Prismatic Joint

d2

{B}
{0}

Revolving Join

d3

4
{H}
{4}

Figure 2. Forward kinematics of a tower crane, an R-P-P-R manipulator

The second step is to employ the Denavit-Hartenberg notation [9] to find the geometrical relationship
between links. The Denavit-Hartenberg notation defines a coordinate system attached to each joint to
describe the displacement of each link relative to its neighbors in a general form. The coordinate
system is named by a number corresponding to the link to which the joint is attached. In other words,
coordinate system {i} is attached to link i. Figure 3 shows a general geometry of a neighboring pair of
links, Link i-1 and Link i, in a three-dimensional space. They have a common joint axis, Axis i,
between them.
Axis i + 1

zi-1

yi

yi-1
{i-1}

{i}
xi-1

zi
xi

ai

Figure 3. Link connection in a robot (Modified from [10]).

The geometrical relationship between the joints at the two ends of Link i-1, i.e. Axis i-1 and Axis i,
can be described by four parameters, ai-1, di, i-1, and i. ai-1 denotes the length of Link i-1, which is the
mutual perpendicular distance between Axis i-1 and Axis i. Likewise, ai represents the length of Link i,
which is the mutual perpendicular distance between the axes between Axis i and Axis i+1. di is called
link offset. It is a signed distance measured along Axis i from the point where ai-1 intersects with the
Axis i to the point where ai intersects with Axis i. i-1 denotes the twist angle between Axis i-1 and
Axis i in the right hand sense with respect to the direction of ai-1 from Axis i-1 to Axis i. i is a
parameter that describes the amount of rotation about this common axis between one link and its
neighbor. As shown in Figure 3, i is measured by the rotational angle from ai-1 and ai with respect to
Axis i in the right hand sense.
By using the parameters defined in Figure 3, the relationship between link i-1 and link i is essentially
the transformation matrix between coordinate system {i-1} and coordinate system {i}. This matrix can
be represented in a homogeneous transformation matrix i-1Ti as follows:
s i
0
ai 1
ci
s c
ci ci 1 s i 1 s i 1d i
i 1

Ti = i i 1
c i 1d i
si s i 1 ci si 1 c i 1

0
0
1
0

(2)

Where i-1Ti maps coordinate system {i} is relative to coordinate system {i-1}. In order to obtain a more
concise presentation, here ci is used to represent cos(i), si is used to represent sin(i), si-1 is used to
represent sin(i-1), and ci-1 is used to represent cos(i-1).
Applying Denavit-Hartenberg notation in a construction crane, we can obtain four transformation
matrices, 0T1, 1T2, 2T3, and 3T4, to describe the relationship between links. 0T1 is the transformation
function from the base coordinate system {0} fixed on the top of the crane tower to the coordinate
system {1} which represents the jib. Similarly, 1T2 transfers the coordinate system from the jib to the
trolley; 2T3 transfers the coordinate system from the trolley to the crane cable {3}; finally 3T4 transfers
the coordinate system from the cable to the hook {4}. Once the transformation matrix for each link has
been developed, the forward kinematics function of the tower crane can be found by multiplying all

link transformation matrices. Since the matrix is essentially transferring the coordinate system from {0}
to {4}, we denote it by 0T4 as shown in
c1c4 + s1s4
s c c s
0
T4 = 0T1 1T2 2T3 3T4 = 1 4 1 4

s1c4 c1s4
c1c4 s1s4
0
0

d1s1
0 d 2c1
1 d3

0
1
0

(3)

Where c1 represents cos(1), c4 represents cos(4), s1 represents sin(1), s4 represents sin(4), 1

represents the rotational angle of the jib, 4 represents the rotational angle of the hook about the cable,
d1 represents distance between trolley and crane tower, and d3 represents the length of the crane cable.
The matrix 0T4 is a homogenous coordinate, which can be used to present both orientation and the
position of the hook with respect to the coordinate system {0}. More discussion about the use
homogenous coordinate to present robot-like machine can be found in [10].
4

VISUALIZING CRANE ACTIVITIES BY USING TIME HISTORY OF JOINT SPACE

In this research, a construction crane and its operations are visualized by using the time history in the
joint space of the crane. The time history records the time and the movement in each
degree-of-freedom of the crane so that we can know the status of the crane in each time instant. One
record in the time history file includes the rotation angle of the jib, the distance between trolley
position and the crane tower, the length of the cable, the rotation angle of the hook by using the crane
cable as a referred axis, and the hoisting status (whether hoisting an object) of the crane. Since the
parameters in joint space represent the relative displacements between the links, we can precisely
visualize the behavior of the crane by drawing it from the tower to the hook according to the time
history. If the crane is rigging an element, we can use forward kinematics shown in equation (3) to
find the position and orientation of the hook and then visualize the object under the hook.
1

10

11

12

Figure 4 Visualization of crane operation by using the time history of joint space.

A computer program is developed to render the animation of crane activities. This computer program
is developed by using OpenGL, a graphical language library broadly used in the areas of computer
graphics. The program first reads in a predefined time history of each part of the crane to the memory
5

buffer, and continuously updates the parameters of the crane model rendered in the OpenGL scene. By
changing the OpenGL scene frequently, we will obtain a smooth animation. In this program, the
frequency of the animation is depending on the speed of the computer hardware. This program can
achieve 15 frames per second while running in a computer equipped with 2.8GHz central processor
and 1GHz graphical processor. In addition, the computer program and has some interactive functions.
Users are allowed to play the animation in different play speed, forward, backward, change view
angles, and walk through the virtual environment.
Using the time history of joint space can significantly reduced the storage space if we would like to
visualize an entire construction project. Only the erection processes in a construction project may take
more than 1000 working hours in cranes. If we would like to visualize the whole processes in the
virtual environment, we may need to prepare a huge storage device to content a huge animation file,
which may size more than 3000 giga-bytes (1 giga = 109). Even if the file is compressed and reduced
resolution, the animation file still need more than 300 giga-bytes storage device. In this research, it is
found that to store the script file of the time history need a file less than 300 mega-bytes (1 mega =
106), which is only 1/103 ~1/104 of file size stored in other movie file format. Figure 3 shows selected
snapshots of the animation file, which visualizes part of an erection activity in a virtual construction
environment.
5

CONCLUSION

This paper has shown an effective method to model a construction crane numerically. This method
employs homogeneous matrices to describe the position and orientation of rigid bodies in a
three-dimension of space. A computer program is developed in this research to demonstrate the use of
the numerical crane motions of model for visualizing crane activities. This program reads the
predefined script file describing the each part of the crane motions, and generates a realistic animation
in real time. The visual results indicate that the numerical model can not only provide an accurate
operation-leveled simulation, but also an efficient method to store geometrical information to simulate
a long-period project. The script file may only size 1/103 ~1/104 of common file formats of animation
files.
6

REFERENCES

1.

Choi, C.W. and Harris, F.C., A Model for Determining Optimum Crane Position, Proceedings of
Institution In Civil Engineers, Vol. 90, June, 1991, pp. 627-634.
Rodriguez-Ramos, W.E. and Francis, R.L., Single Crane Location Optimization, Journal of
Construction Engineering and Management; Vol. 109, No. 4, 1983, pp. 387-397.
Zhang, P., Harris, F.C., Olomilaiye, P.O. and Holt, G.D., Location Optimization for A Group of
Tower Cranes, Journal of Construction Engineering and Management; Vol. 125, No. 2, 1999, pp.
115-122.
Chui, M.L., A Virtual Reality Environment for Construction Simulation, Proceedings of The 17th
Iaarc International Symposium On Automation and Robotics (ISARC); Taipei, Taiwan, 2000, pp.
1147-1152.
Lipman, R.R. and Reed, K. A., Visualization of Structural Steel Product Models, Electronic
Journal of Information Technology In Construction; Vol. 8, 2003, pp. 43-50.
Niaz, A.M., Al-Hussein, M., and Kim, H., Integrated 3d Object Transformation and Simulation
for Tower Crane Operations On Construction Sites, Proceedings of The 21th Iaarc International
Symposium On Automation and Robotics (ISARC); Jeju Island, Korea, Septemper 21-25, 2004.
Amatucci, E., Bostelman, R., Dagalakis, N., Tsai, T., Summary of Modeling and Simulation for
Nist Robocrane Applications, Proceedings of The 1997 Deneb International Simulation
Conference and Technology Showcas; Detroit, MI, Septemper 29 October 3, 1997.
Bostelman, R., Albus, J. and Stone, B., Toward Next-Generation Construction Machine.
Proceedings of American Nuclear Society 9th International Topical Meeting On Robotics and

2.
3.

4.

5.
6.

7.

8.

Remote Systems; Seattle, WA, March 4-8, 2001.

Denavit, J. and Hartenberg, R.S., A Kinematic Notation for Lower-Pair Mechanism Based On
Matrices, Journal of Applied Mechanics; Vol. 77, 1955, pp. 215-221.
10. Craig, J., Introduction To Robotics Mechanics and Control, 2nd Ed., Addison-Wesley Publishing
Company, Inc., 1989.
9.