CRANE WITH AN ANTI-COLLISION DEVICE AND METHOD FOR INSTALLING SUCH AN ANTI-COLLISION DEVICE

Abstract

The invention relates to a method for installing an anti-collision device of a crane which has a boom that can be rotated about an upright rotational axis of the crane. A crane position and an orientation of the crane, in particular of the boom, are determined, wherein the crane position is automatically determined by means of a satellite navigation module on the crane and is provided to the anti-collision device in the form of global coordinates, and the orientation of the crane is automatically determined by means of an orientation sensor system attached to the crane and is provided to the anti-collision device in the form of a direction in the global coordinate system.

Claims

1. A method of installing an anti-collision device of a crane that has a boom rotatable about an upright crane axis of rotation, the method comprising: determining a crane position and an orientation of the boom; automatically determining the crane position by a satellite navigation module at the crane; providing the crane position to an anti-collision device in the form of global coordinates; and automatically determining the orientation of the crane by an orientation sensor system attached to the crane; providing the orientation of the crane to the anti-collision device in the form of a direction in the global coordinate system.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising: determining the orientation of the crane by the satellite navigation module, and wherein the satellite navigation module is attached to the crane spaced apart from the crane axis of rotation; rotating the crane about its crane axis of rotation for the orientation determination; determining the location of the crane axis of rotation from the positions of the satellite navigation module measured during the rotation of the crane; determining the orientation of the crane by the orientation sensor system from the respective location of the satellite navigation module relative to the determined crane axis of rotation.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising: determining a circular path from the measurement points of the satellite navigation module on the rotation of the crane; determining the center of the circular path as the crane axis of rotation; evaluating said measurement points of the satellite navigation module by a geometrical evaluation method and/or a statistical evaluation method comprising the least square method.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising: determining the orientation of the crane with two or more satellite navigation modules attached spaced apart from one another to the boom and/or to the counterboom and/or to a tower on the one hand and to the boom or the counterboom on the other hand; determining the orientation of the crane as a connection line between the measurement points of the plurality of satellite navigation modules spaced apart from one another.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising: determining the orientation of the crane with the aid of a satellite navigation module attached to a trolley of the crane; traveling the trolley along the boom with a stopped slewing gear of the crane and with a straight line used as the orientation of the crane being determined by the positions of the satellite navigation module measured on the rotation of the trolley.

6. A method of installing an anti-collision device of a crane that has a boom rotatable about an upright crane axis of rotation, the method comprising: providing the crane position and/or the orientation of the crane to an anti-collision device pneumatically in the form of global coordinates and/or of a direction in the global coordinate system from a construction site data model.

7. A crane having a boom rotatable about an upright crane axis of rotation and from which a lifting hook can be lowered, comprising: a control device for controlling crane movements; an anti-collision device for monitoring the crane movements for possible collisions and for disabling such crane movements and/or for outputting a warning signal, a satellite navigation module to determine the crane position; and an orientation sensor system to determine a crane orientation in the form of a direction in the global coordinate system; wherein the anti-collision device is configured to use the crane position determined by the satellite navigation module in the form of global coordinates and to use the orientation of the crane determined by the orientation sensor system for collision monitoring.

8. The crane of claim 7, wherein the satellite navigation module is attached spaced apart from the crane axis of rotation to the boom, to a counterboom, and/or to a trolley travelable along the boom, wherein the orientation sensor system is configured to determine the orientation of the crane from a plurality of measurement points of the satellite navigation module determined on the rotation of the crane about the crane axis of rotation and/or on the traveling of the trolley.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0021] The invention will be explained in more detail in the following with reference to a preferred embodiment and to associated drawings. There are shown in the drawings:

[0022] FIG. 1: a perspective representation of a crane in the form of a revolving tower crane that for installing its anti-collision device is provided with a satellite navigation module that is attached to the counterboom spaced apart from the crane axis of rotation; and

[0023] FIG. 2: a view of the measurement values of the satellite navigation module on a rotation of the crane about its upright crane axis of rotation.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0024] As FIG. 1 shows, the crane can be formed as a revolving tower crane 1, for example in the form of a so-called top-slewer whose tower 2 supports a boom 3 and a counterboom 4 which extend substantially horizontally and which are rotatable about the upright tower axis 5 relative to the tower 2. Instead of the crane configuration shown in FIG. 1, the revolving tower crane 1 could, however, also be formed as a bottom-slewer and/or could comprise a luffable fly boom and/or could be guyed via a guying to the tower bottom or to the superstructure, with the crane, however, also being able to be formed as a telescopic crane having a luffable boom or as a transfer harbor crane.

[0025] To be able to rotate the boom 3, a slewing gear 6 is provided which is provided in the embodiment shown at the upper end of the tower 2 between the boom 3 and the tower 2 and which can comprise a sprocket with which a drive wheel driven by a drive motor 7 meshes.

[0026] A trolley 7 can be travelably supported at said boom 3, with said trolley 7 being able to be traveled via a trolley drive, The hoist rope to which a lifting hook 8 is attached or reeved runs over said trolley 7. The lifting hook 8 can be lowered and raised via a hoisting gear 9.

[0027] Said crane movements are controlled by a control device 10 of the crane 1 that controls and/or monitors said drives, in particular the slewing gear 6, the trolley drive, and the hoisting gear 9.

[0028] An electronic anti-collision device 11 is furthermore provided that can be connected to said control device 10 or can optionally also be formed hereby or can be implemented therein. Said anti-collision device 11 can also form a higher ranking module that can communicate with control devices of further cranes that are set up at the same construction site.

[0029] If crane movements result or are impending that may lead to collisions, said anti-collision device 11 can intervene in the respective control device 10 to stop the corresponding crane movement, in particular to stop the slewing gear 6 and/or the hoisting gear 9 and/or the trolley drive. Alternatively or additionally, a corresponding warning signal can also be displayed to the crane operator on a display.

[0030] To install said anti-collision device 11, the crane position, in particular the position of the crane axis of rotation 5, is determined with the aid of a satellite navigation module 12 that can be installed spaced apart from said crane axis of rotation 5 at the boom 3 or at the counterboom 4.

[0031] Since the satellite navigation module 12 per se can only determine a position in the form of global coordinates and cannot determine an orientation, the crane 1 is rotated about its upright crane axis of rotation 5 on the installation of the anti-collision system 1 so that the satellite navigation module 12 is traveled along a circular path around the crane axis of rotation 5.

[0032] The positions measured on the rotation of the crane 1 about the crane axis of rotation 5 are shown in FIG. 2 and at least approximately reproduce the circular path of the satellite navigation module 12 about the crane axis of rotation 5.

[0033] The crane center or the position of the crane axis of rotation 5 can be determined by determining the center of the circular path that the satellite navigation module 12 has covered. The orientation of the crane can, for example, be calculated by taking over the northernmost circle point. In addition to geometrical processes, suitable statistical or optimization processes can also be used as calculation methods such as in particular the method of least squares.

[0034] The installation of the anti-collision system can advantageously hereby take place with the aid of only one satellite navigation module 12 and the required hardware can be minimized despite the automated installation.

[0035] Alternatively or additionally, the crane position and orientation can, however, also be determined in a different manner for reasons of redundancy. For example, two satellite navigation modules can be used that can be attached spaced apart from one another at the boom 3 and/or at the counterboom 4 and/or at the tower 2, on the one hand, and at the counterboom 4 or the boom 3, on the other hand.

[0036] In an advantageous further development of the invention, a satellite navigation module 12 can also be attached to said trolley 7 to be able to determine the orientation of the boom 3 in a simple manner by traveling the trolley 7 along the boom 3 and the positions measured in so doing. For this purpose, the slewing gear 6 is stopped and the trolley drive is actuated so that the positions measured by the satellite navigation module 12 lie at least approximately along a straight line that can, for example, be placed through the measurement points by a statistical evaluation method. Said straight line then corresponds to the orientation of the crane boom 3.

[0037] It can generally also be considered to attach the satellite receiver 12 to the crane hook and to evaluate the positions measured in this respect in a corresponding manner to determine the position or the orientation of the crane.

[0038] The crane position and/or the crane orientation can furthermore also be provided to the anti-collision device 11 in the form of global coordinate systems and/or a direction in the global coordinate system by input at a display or at an input device, with said global coordinates that reproduce the crane position and/or the global direction that reproduces the crane orientation being provided from a construction site data model 13. Said construction site model 13 can, for example, be stored in a server such as a master computer, with the provision to the anti-collision system being able to take place, for example, via a construction site master computer 14 and corresponding data links.