A Basic Study on Communication Characteristics by Bluetooth Low Energy for i-Construction

At present, construction machines such as excavators and cranes are built with communication modules in order to connect to networks. Therefore, the construction machines can be controlled through commands sent via the network to improve productivity. This is called i-construction. Two examples of i-construction are remote control and automatic control systems for the construction machine. In these systems, generally, wireless communication is used. However, the wireless communication characteristics that need to be considered in i-construction are still unclear. In order to clarify, this paper seeks to characterize the characteristics of Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) communication when used in construction machines. In the evaluations, we use a BLE beacon module. Experimental results show that the BLE beacon module can communicate between the sender in the excavator's attachment and receiver in the cabin. The results show that there is a possibility that the wireless communication systems can be applied for the construction machines.