Crane Safety Systems Advance With AI and Real-Time Monitoring

Recent developments in crane safety technology have focused on integrating artificial intelligence and advanced monitoring systems to reduce risks on construction sites. These systems are designed to manage crane operations, detect potential hazards, and alert workers in real time.

Potain’s Top Tracing 3 is an anti-collision and zone-control solution for tower cranes that can coordinate up to 16 cranes at once. The system allows users to define restricted zones, manage hook heights and travel paths, and supervise operations remotely through a PC interface.

Top Tracing III, also referred to as Top Tracing 3, is integrated into the CCS control system and provides a full-screen display of restricted zones and nearby cranes that may interfere. This setup is intended to help operators avoid collisions and maintain safe distances between cranes and other equipment.

What the numbers show

• Potain’s Top Tracing 3 can manage up to 16 tower cranes simultaneously
• Academic systems combine 2D and 3D data to monitor danger zones in real time
• Geoaita OWS uses satellite tracking for real-time alerts to workers entering danger zones

Academic research has produced AI-based safety monitoring systems that use bird’s-eye-view camera and LiDAR data to locate workers and modular components on construction sites. These systems are designed to prevent collisions by identifying when individuals or objects enter hazardous areas near cranes.

One academic approach fuses two-dimensional detection with point-cloud data to determine the three-dimensional positions of both people and crane loads. When a person enters a defined danger zone, the system triggers alarms and provides crane operators with real-time lifting information.

Commercial solutions such as viHOI by viAct.ai use computer vision to track crane load paths and identify unauthorized personnel in lifting danger zones by analyzing helmet colors. The system can activate alarms on the crane hook and across the site, with processing handled by both cloud and edge AI platforms.

Geoaita OWS offers a satellite-based overhead warning system that monitors crane hook movement in real time. Workers who enter dynamically defined danger zones receive alerts through helmet-mounted devices and audible or visual alarms, aiming to enhance safety on active construction sites.

* This article is based on publicly available information at the time of writing.