A Low-Cost System for Monitoring Tower Crane Productivity Cycles Combining Inertial Measurement Units, Load Cells and Lora Networks

Tower cranes are one of the most expensive assets inside construction projects and they lead the timing of the planned activities. For this reason, assuring the efficient use of this equipment is essential for the productivity of the project. This work presents a monitoring system for tower crane productivity cycles. It uses an Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) to calculate jib angles in real time which allows the evaluation of the crane position. In addition, a load cell system measures the lifted load by the tower crane. Data is transmitted via Long Range (LoRa) network. Data is tagged from the origin and sent to the brain, which uploads the information to the cloud. Results show that the system can be used for real time monitoring of the tower crane operation by measuring productivity cycles, average lifted load, and operation hours. This information is organized and displayed in a time series platform that generates inactivity and load alerts to construction managers within the projects.