LiDAR Scanning System and HD Map for Collision Avoidance in Tower Crane

Tower cranes are the centerpiece on building construction jobsites. Since working under crowded conditions, tower cranes are prone to collide with each other and collide with background objects, especially in some blind areas. Anti-collision system is commonly adopted to reduce and avoid collision. This paper proposed to achieve anti-collision through LiDAR scanning technology. A LiDAR scanning system is developed and installed on the tower crane. The dense point cloud of the construction jobsite was captured in advance and update frequently. The three-dimensional (3D) spatial data of the lifting hook/lifted objects were scanned by the LiDAR scanning system in real time. Combing the real time data with the dense point cloud of the background environment, the real time collision detention and collision warning can be accomplished. This paper introduces the developed LiDAR scanning system, the used direct-georeferencing and automatic system calibration method, and the hierarchical dense point cloud segmentation methods. The resolution, accuracy and the segmentation results of the captured data were validated.