4D-BIM Based Real Time Augmented Reality Navigation System for Tower Crane Operation

Tower cranes play important roles on construction site. Deviation between crane operations in real environment and lifting plans in 4D building information modeling (BIM) will often cause problems such as schedule delay, collision accidents, or budget overruns. Hence, effective navigation for crane operations based on the lifting plans should improve both safety and efficiency of construction projects. Previous researches have not linked lifting plans well in 4D BIM with real crane operations to help crane operators clearly understand their lifting tasks in real environment like target, path, collision avoidance, and timeline. Deviations between lifting plans and real operations still remain. In this paper we propose an approach that integrates 4D-BIM and augmented reality (AR) to provide real time navigation for tower crane operations. A markerless AR registration method is used to link 4D BIM data with real construction environment directly. Dynamic lifting tasks are represented at expected positions and with right timeline. In addition, a prototype both in software and hardware and a mock up is made for approach validation. The result shows that, by using the proposed approach, a lifting plan in 4D BIM could be carried out in a real construction environment precisely and operators could get effective navigation to improve the safety and efficiency of their operations in real time.