The Requirement

A customer came to us with a requirement to provide a system that would provide the heading and precise positioning of a Rubber Tyre Gantry Crane. Due to the environment the crane suffered from GPS outage’s and therefore the system was also required to provide positioning when GPS was not available. As an additional requirement the system was to provide the operator with a method to detect obstacles in the path of the RTG.

Our Solution

We developed a system called “OptoNAV”. The OptoNAV system assists the RTG operator by providing a visual camera reference of the RTG in relation to the driveline. Two cameras mounted each side of the vehicle continually monitor the direction, angle and accuracy of the RTG to the driveline by image processing techniques. The Northing and Easting position derived from these images are then compared with given system parameters. Any RTG deviation from these parameters will be visually displayed to the Operator via the traffic light display screen in the cabin. By interfacing the OptoNAV system with the on-board RTG “Assisted Steering Module” it can provide a seamless reliable fall-back in the event of poor GPS data. Therefore OptoNAV will still give the Operator a continuous visual of driveline accuracy or obstructions.

Related Products: