A physics-based simulation approach for cooperative erection activities

Abstract

Cooperative erection activities are critical to projects which involve the erection of heavy loads or theinstallation of special equipment. Detailed simulation on computer prior to construction can identifyconstructability problems, and subsequently avoided during actual erections. This paper describes anintegrated approach for simulating the detailed motions of cranes. This research develops a physics-basedmodel that follows the principle of closed-form forward kinematics and constraint-based dynamics topresent the dual-crane mechanism mathematically — a non-trivial task. This model can be used to analyzethe inputs from the users (i.e. virtual crane operators) and simultaneously compute the cables sway andreaction of collisions. We also implemented the model on computer and developed a simulation system,Erection Director, to render realistic cooperative erection activities. A demonstration of simulating two-cranelift has been built and three performance tests including a small building (840 elements), a medium building(1937 elements) and a large building (2682 elements) validate the feasibility of the proposed approach. Thetest results indicate that Erection Director can support real-time and physics-based visualization ofcooperative erections.