Prototyping for real-time heavy lift simulation using game engine system

Abstract

The process of construction for industrial projects often relies on large mobile cranes to lift heavy modules. It is a process involving in-depth engineering analysis in which lift engineers devote considerable effort to ensuring the safety and ease of the lifting process by generating lift studies. Due to the complexity of the site conditions, the lifting process has inherent uncertainties, and judgments are often made intuitively. Over the past decade, visualization has been used to simulate crane lifts in order to add certinty and confidence to the engineering plan and to assist in training crews. This paper introduces a newly developed heavy lift simulator using game engine which allows the user to interactively analyze the lifting process. Compared with 4D visualization, this development adds the dimension of real-time interactive simulation, which can be further extended to virtual reality (VR) applications in future research. The developed prototype is tested and validated using the case study of a heavy industrial project with single-player mode.