Automated Crane Planning and Optimization for modular construction

The majority of industrial projects in Alberta's oil sands are constructed using modular construction. Modules are preassembled components built off-site and transported to the site to be lifted into place with mobile cranes. Heavy lifts include modules as well as major equipment that utilize expensive mobile cranes. Selecting the proper mobile cranes and configurations and finding the best crane position for each lift saves a significant amount of time and cost, while also improving safety. A heavy lift plan facilitates overall site management by reducing extra crane relocations and avoiding dangerous crane clashes. Performing such intensive analysis manually for several hundred lifts and various crane options is a tedious, prolonged exercise. However, no application that carries out such intensive analysis for a number of lifts in modular construction has yet been developed. This paper presents a system, called Automated Crane Planning and Optimization, to automate the above-mentioned analysis for a large-scale project. This system is validated on actual modular projects.