Developing an intelligent monitoring technology for airport stone column machines

Most of the construction machinery for vibro-sinking stone columns, which are widely used in China, needs to be improved in terms of degree of automation. Engineering quality control is mainly carried out post-inspection; consequently, it is difficult to control the construction quality in real time. According to the construction characteristics of traditional stone column machines, we established the theory and model for the real-time monitoring of stone column construction, as well as put forward an intelligent monitoring method for stone column machines. With the comprehensive application of critical technologies such as the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) measurement technology, laser ranging sensors, and massive data processing, an intelligent data acquisition technique and associated monitoring equipment for stone column construction machines are developed. The data acquisition and storage of crucial construction parameters, such as pile depth, pile point co-ordinates, bearing layer current, and reverse insertion times, are realized. A large number of actual construction data are collected and the construction quality parameters of stone column machines are obtained. By comparison with third-party detection data, it is verified that the intelligent monitoring technique for stone column machines proposed in this paper is feasible.