The mobile phone grows ever more ubiquitous. It’s not just people on the streets, in their cars and on trains who all seem to be talking into their phones. Increasingly, machines too are being fitted with mobile phone systems. These do not transmit words as such, but streams of data giving equipment owners information about the position, use and condition of their machines.
Developments have been slower in the sometimes conservative crane sector but systems for tracking the location of cranes, for monitoring their use and eventually for telemetric monitoring of multiple mechanical and configuration options, are being offered.
‘Black box’ transmitter systems seem to have developed from two main directions. First is the increasing use of digital and computerised control systems on machines. It has proved to be a small step to transmit this data to a remote monitor.
Prototype telemetry systems, offering various options for transmitting mechanical and operational data, were first shown at construction equipment exhibitions some years ago for certain types of equipment, literally using a mobile phone onboard. The phone was plugged into the electronic engine and hydraulics monitoring systems and the on board computers which also began to be fitted on equipment at that time. Rather than store data in a logging system it could be transmitted to a central workshop or management centre.
Manufacturers are offering increasingly tailor made options for monitoring and sometimes even controlling equipment remotely, not least Caterpillar and Liebherr. The latter is one of the few companies to make a system specifically for mobile and crawler cranes.
Benefits are many. Machine condition checks can be carried out remotely, allowing better use of the time of skilled engineers, and more immediate and up to date monitoring of data can spot early symptoms of trouble. Breakdowns can be assessed by the manufacturer from a distance allowing swifter repair work and ensuring that the correct spare parts are delivered to the machine if necessary.
Machines can be tracked and followed in the field which allows their positions to be checked for both fleet and construction management purposes as well as theft prevention. Checking machine functions and operating times can prevent overloading and fraudulent or excessive use by hire customers and field operators. It can also help with preventative maintenance programmes.
From a second direction has come tracking technology, aimed not at machine monitoring but at theft prevention. Lighter machines like forklifts and backhoe loaders are particularly worth tracking. There is an organised criminal fraternity working across Europe that steals equipment, re-paints it and ships it off to another country within a day.
Tracker systems do not use mobile phones as such but a small radio emitter, like those which have featured in James Bond movies for many years. If equipment is stolen it can be located by following radio phase differences in the generated signal. Two separated radio antennae are needed to pick up the signal. Most police forces have a vehicle equipped with the necessary double antenna and computers.
Tracker Network UK has had widespread success fitting detectors to more easily stolen small construction machines and to vehicles such as cars and service vans. It says that 8,200 vehicles have been recovered in the UK, where it has nearly 400,000 vehicles fitted with devices, in the last three or four years.
Van and even car makers are more actively exploring this technology and some of them are fitting tracking systems as optional or even standard anti-theft devices on new models.
Crane rental firms have fitted tracking equipment on their maintenance and sales vehicles but these kinds of black box systems have not had much impact on crane owners. Most say that theft is not a critical problem for cranes, perhaps because the machines are usually too big and cumbersome to hide and export easily. Alternatively they are in and out of the yard so regularly, working on short term jobs, that fleet managers can easily identify where their machines are.
One type of crane that is vulnerable to theft, however, is the truck-mounted loader crane. According to Richard Dale of Longton Crane Hire in Stoke-on-Trent in the UK, the Tracker is essential for these smaller units. ‘We have had three stolen and the problem is not simply the cost but the time lag waiting for a replacement which can take four months,’ he says.
Longton has just moved to an upgraded system which automatically alerts police if the vehicle is operated illicitly. In the past somebody had to contact the police which, if the theft was not immediately noticed, could mean losing valuable hours. Dale says he will not use the independent systems on bigger cranes, but will wait and see what the manufacturers start to fit as standard.
Tracker Network now offers a second position tracking system based around mobile phone technology. An onboard processor, with the ‘guts’ of a mobile phone is linked to a global positioning system (GPS) satellite aerial and detector. This allows position information to be accessed for the machine and also other details to be logged and transmitted.
A large number of similar systems have recently been put onto the market by a variety of suppliers. Many of these are offshoots from the mobile phone companies which are now exploring how to further exploit the data transmitting capacity of the mobile phone network, not least perhaps because the existing use of mobile phones is reaching a plateau.
Suppliers start not with the crane or even the construction equipment market, therefore, but with the mobile phone, looking for uses for its data transmission capabilities. One company is Box, based in Birmingham, UK. Box, an offshoot of a company which supplies airtime on the mobile network, produces data transmission ‘boxes’ and software to run them. The firm says that the product is generic, and therefore flexible and can be tailored to any function, finding users across a wide variety of fields. Its units contain the key parts of a mobile phone, a small central processing unit (CPU), 16Mb of memory and inputs for various external devices. The ‘box’ and its software costs something over £500 ($750) per machine to fit.
Units have been tailored for valve houses on water courses, for example, in a joint scheme with a water company, and for telemetric monitoring systems on locomotives to gather and transmit data on engine operating characteristics.
Box is also investigating use in vending machines. Customers would dial up the vending machine beside them to release their purchase from the machine, and payment would be through their phone bill.
For cranes, the processor would be linked with a GPS aerial, allowing determination of location to within 20m. ‘We could make sure it stayed within certain boundaries while travelling for example,’ says Box marketing director Mike Langley.
Other data can be stored such as engine operating times. At regular intervals the data is transmitted over the mobile phone network to a control centre computer programmed with the Box software.
Box has not yet sold a system to the crane market, but similar ones are starting to be used in the industry by, for example, hire companies. One such is the UK’s AGD Equipment, which has a fleet of 60t and 70t crawler cranes as well as various sales and service vans and cars, and is just finishing a short programme of installing black boxes on its machines.
‘These systems have been on offer now for two or three years, and there are dozens on offer of various sorts,’ says AGD chairman Bill Law. ‘In fact we investigated our first one last year but the seller went into receivership.’
AGD chose a system from Thales, formerly Racal/Decca Electronics and now part of the Thomson CSF defence equipment group in France. Initially called Orchid, the Racal system has emerged from surveying and tracking technology used worldwide. The company makes large scale radio tracking systems such as the one used by the Icelandic fishing trawler fleet to detect boats that might go missing.
But Thales also offers GPS and mobile phone technology that works through either local area mobile phone networks or, for international and worldwide use, through satellite systems. The latter requires a more expensive transmitter-aerial-GPS combination.
It costs AGD about £600 ($900) to fit one machine or a van and link it in, says Law. AGD is fitting the devices itself. They are simply bolted on, usually in an unobtrusive position.
Thales Navigation sales manager David Wilson-le-Moine quotes typical costs between £600 and £800 ($900-$1,200) per machine. The overall cost, running to several tens of thousands of pounds to fit the fleet, is possibly slightly more than other suppliers might have quoted but Law liked the size and support service of Thales.
For AGD the system lets the firm track the location of its plant and also monitors when and how long it is in use by recording engine data. This lets the company check machine delivery, for example, and also prevents fraudulent use in an unauthorised location or at non-specified hire times. Software can be programmed to send a warning if the machine goes off route, and immobilisation is possible though care is needed with cranes because immobilising a unit mid-lift might be dangerous.
A few simple additional parameters are measured such as engine temperature, oil temperature and whether or not the alternator is working. ‘These are not as sophisticated as a Formula One [racing] car but it allows us to be alerted to maintenance or breakdown items. Saving the cost of a misused engine would alone make it worthwhile,’ says Law.
Restrictions on the data are needed partly because the devices incur a phone bill just like a mobile phone, every time they transmit information, typically perhaps £10 ($15) a month for each machine, although it can be much more. Satellite transmission is not much more expensive than land-based mobile phone transmission.
To keep bills low, data is stored in computer memory and compressed for transmission in short bursts at limited times, perhaps hourly, daily or even weekly. For up to date information the systems can be ‘polled’ and asked to transmit immediately.
The devices are controlled from a central computer with supplied software which can be used to programme and monitor the on board transmitters. In Thales’ case, a bureau service is also offered which collects the data centrally and then supplies it to the company via an internet check-in site. AGD is using this option, which has the additional advantage that the position information is much more accurate, because expensive GPS signal correction technology can be applied at the bureau giving GPS accuracy to within 2m. The additional cost of GPS signal correction equipment is usually too expensive for individual firms, which means they are limited to about a 20m position accuracy.
AGD is one of the first users. It says that it has particular needs for the system. Hiring crawler cranes means they can be out for weeks or months and tracking is useful. Mobile crane companies on the other hand say that they tend to hire on a daily basis and usually know where the machines are and can keep closer track of their use.
But mobile crane firms may start to use the systems when they can supply more information, and when much more detailed on board maintenance monitoring can be done, with a wide range of checkable parameters. These would fall into two categories; monitoring hydraulic and engine systems, for example, and monitoring crane configuration, loading and use data such as loads, boom radii, falls, etc.
One company leading the way here is Royal Dutch Saan of the Netherlands. As reported in last month’s Cranes Today, Saan is investing in the region of E200,000 to fit its entire fleet of more than 100 mobile cranes with an ICS black box system which records journey data, information on driving style, management reporting, automatic collation and recording of wage data, and GPS tracking.
Steve Cooke, engineering director of Ainscough Crane Hire in the UK, believes more companies will follow and he is reviewing options but with nearly 450 machines it would be a substantial investment: ‘I would have to convince the board that it was worth it in savings.’
Modern cranes already have a wide range of digital data collection available, Cooke points out, and more will be possible as manufacturers develop ways to pass data through the slewing ring.
At present data loggers store this data on board but this might not be downloaded for three months until the memory cards are full. With regular transmission of data, perhaps daily, better fleet maintenance and planning would be possible, he believes, and component failure could be spotted early.
If such systems are to be produced independently they will still require close work with crane manufacturers to ensure that the digital inputs and data storage match up. Both Demag and Liebherr are working on systems. Liebherr claims to be the only manufacturer already offering its own on board modem. It connects to a standard cell phone or to an on board transmitter from an independent supplier.
Kurt Rudigier, crawler crane sales director at Liebherr-Werk Nenzing, says that Liebherr has set up a company specifically to research and develop electronic systems for its full range of cranes and lifting products from mobiles and crawlers to harbour mobile, ship and offshore cranes. The latest generation uses CAN bus and a 64-bit processor, exactly what is needed to fit with the Box system mentioned at the beginning, for example.
Grove installs data logging black boxes on its full range of cranes for customers who request them. Says marketing director Malcolm Early: ‘They split into two types: for logging operational information, which in our case is done by the AKS system; and for machine condition monitoring, done by the ECOS system.’ But this information is downloaded from a specially robust storage disc to a laptop rather than being transmitted through the air.
‘For GPS systems and so on, that give positional information, or regular bursts of information over a telephone link, we do not fit equipment ourselves although we have worked with a firm in Germany, Brauar, which fits them and we can work with other similar suppliers.’
Despite these developments, Ainscough’s Cooke says he is not yet convinced that the systems have quite reached the level where they offer everything that he needs as a user. Active assessment will continue, he says, but it is ‘a matter of cost against benefits’.
He recognises that costs are likely to come down and perhaps the systems will start to be offered as extras or even as standard components for new machines. They are coming, and soon the air will be filled with crane data.
