Smart Control and Virtual Drive innovations improve productivity and safety.
With Smart Control, the new boom tip controller prototype, crane operation is easier, more intuitive and faster than ever. Crane operators no longer have to control each cylinder individually because thanks to the electronic assistance system, the operator can concentrate exclusively on the boom tip. Smart Control also allows the crane’s physical capability to be utilised to the full in every situation by ensuring that the most important movement parameters are perfectly optimised with each other in every position.
This helps to enhance the efficiency of work performed using the crane and ensures that crane operators are not quite as exhausted as they used to be at the end of the day. This places less of a physical load overall on operators, which, in turn, helps to prevent accidents and significantly reduce crane training times. Smart Control is also the only system on the market to feature an adaptive gripper tip controller. This means that when objects are lifted from the ground, the gripper is also raised automatically so that it does not come into contact with the ground when it closes. This reduces not only ground disturbance but also damage to the truck loading surface. In addition, the integrated electronic limit position damper helps to significantly reduce wear on the main components.
Virtual Drive enables the user to control the crane with the aid of virtual reality (VR) glasses outside the danger zone. The crane driver is now sitting in the truck cab and is therefore no longer exposed to external weather conditions or safety risks. The VR control system offers not only enhanced driver comfort and safety but also a range of additional benefits such as a better overview of the situation, additional loads and reduced fuel consumption.
However, technological progress, especially in the field of VR glasses, is currently not quite as advanced as Epsilon would like. The resolution and field of vision of the VR glasses that are currently available are still limited compared with crane operation without VR assistance. But as soon as VR glasses offer the kind of resolution required, they will be quickly adopted. Source