During the past month of November, I had the opportunity to be part of a two day demonstration of machine control technology put on by the Syracuse, NY branch of Milton CAT.  The demonstration was done at a large gravel pit near Milton CAT’s office.  This setting allowed the participants to actually use the machine control technology in a real world situation.  They were encouraged to get on the equipment and try out the technology and see how it works when building a road or grading a building pad.

The demonstration was made up of different “stations” or “areas” to showcase machine control technology on different pieces of equipment.  There was an station that demonstrated a GPS equipped dozer and GPS equipped excavator where the two pieces of equipment worked side by side to cut and fill a road to subgrade along with cutting in a ditch and building a berm on the outside of the ditch. 

There was an area that had utilized a robotic total station to control the location and elevation of a grader for fine grading a section of road.  There was also an area that had a GPS equipped dozer along with laser augmentation that allowed the dozer to bring a site to grade within tolerances, that in many cases would eliminate the need for fine grading with a grader. 

One of areas I found to be very interesting, was the area that showcased a GPS equipped roller with intelligent compaction technology.  The roller had a screen that showed the areas that met the compaction requirements and the areas that didn’t.  As you passed over certain areas enough times to meet the compaction requirements those areas changed from one color to another to indicate that you didn’t need to roll those areas anymore.  This is just one supplemental uses of GPS that the manufactures have found for GPS technology.  As time goes by, there will be more and more uses found for GPS technology that we haven’t even thought of yet. 

There was an area that showcased compact construction equipment with automation.  This was made up of laser guided skid steers and mine excavators, outfitted with various attachments for digging and grading small projects with 2D technology.

There was also a station where you could take a hold of a GPS rover and learn how to layout different site features like manholes or storm lines.  You could also see how to measure points, collect as-built data and check grades using the construction grade data collector software.  

Each area or station was manned by Milton CAT, Caterpillar, Trimble, Keystone Precision Instruments or SiteTechNY personnel, so there was basically an expert at each station helping the attendees understand how the technology works and how it can increase their productivity.  The experts were there to answer questions and show how the technology works.  But most important, it allowed the participant’s to get a hold of the technology, push the buttons and try different things in a real world situation that you normally can’t do during typical demos and have someone their to answer your questions as you learned.

This was a great opportunity to see all the newest technology in one place and get a chance to talk to many of the industry experts and get their insight into how the newest technology is changing the construction and land surveying industries. 

The station that I was in charge of, along with Chris Constantine of SiteTech, was the 3D site modeling area.  This was a great opportunity for me to educate contractors, construction personnel and even some of the equipment sales personnel on what is involved with building a 3D model of a construction site and why they should have a land surveyor involved with their projects.  Many of the contractors came up to my booth and asked what the 3D modeling was all about.  They knew it was part of machine control technology and it involved computers and design files, but they had no idea what is really involved in creating the files. 

Many contractors seem to be under the impression that model building is very easy and they can just upload CAD files from the engineers design, with little modification, and that is all they need to go to work.  This demonstration allowed me to stand on my soap box and explain to contractors why they need land surveyors involved in setting up their project site control and their site calibrations.  It also allowed me to teach contractors why they should have someone with construction experience and a thorough understanding of the construction process, build their models.  In many cases, I had a captive audience that wanted to understand what 3D modeling involved, so while explaining exactly what is involved in creating a good 3D model, I was able to stress the importance of having land surveyors or at least competent construction personnel involved with creating these 3D models.  I told everyone that came by and would listen that “Machine control technology will build a site perfectly, but wrong, if your control and site calibration are not correct before you begin on a site.  Site control and the site calibration are the basis of your site and you need to make sure those two components are correct before you begin moving dirt or installing pipe.”

Many contractors believe they are going to buy the technology and then they are never going to have to have a land surveyor on site again.  My goal was to explain why the contractors still need a land surveyor involved with their projects and that land surveyors are the natural choice to be involved.  I was amazed at the number of contactors that believe they are going to hire a college graduate and that person is going to be in charge of their machine control and build their models because the have some CAD experience.  When I heard this, my usual comment was “You are going to let someone with little or no construction experience have complete control over setting up your project site and control the location and grading of your entire construction project, because they have college degree?”  Once they heard it put this way, they realized that there is far more too 3D modeling than just building a CAD file and uploading it to the equipment. 

There seems to be a common misconception out there that just because you are educated you are going to have the abilities to utilize GPS and machine control technology.  This was a great opportunity for me to help dispel this misconception and explain why land surveyors should still be utilized on construction projects. 

This demo was free to anyone that signed up, however, since it was sponsored by our local Caterpillar dealer it was marketed towards contractors and construction personnel and not to the land surveying market.  However, I was happy to see at least a handful of land surveyors took part in the demonstration.  Most land surveyors were there because it finally gave them a chance to see what machine control technology was all about and how it works firsthand.  The land surveyors I talked to have realized they need to be involved in machine control technology.  We were even fortunate enough to have a group of students from Paul Smiths College Surveying Program attend.  I really think it is important for surveying students to understand the role that machine control technology is playing in their future industry and lives. 

As land surveyors, we are going to have opportunities to be involved in machine control technology.  However, if you have the opportunity to take part in a similar demonstration or especially if you have the chance help educate contractors or construction personnel on the importance of having land surveyors involved in their projects, you should certainly take full advantage of that opportunity.  Obviously, we need to emphasis the importance of our expertise to anyone that will listen and no one else is going to do it for us.