Tag Archives: machine control

The Long Drive

Topcon Positioning Systems’ president and CEO Ray O’Connor talks about automation, integrated solutions, smart phones, golf, and the coming era of continuous representation of reality.  The occasion of our conversation with Ray O’Connor was a visit to the headquarters of Topcon Positioning Systems in Livermore, California, which included a tour of their manufacturing facility, a...

This heavy excavator (left) resolves orientation via GNSS antennas on the counterweight, and a series of tilt sensors calibrated to the moving sections of the boom provide highly accurate feedback to the operator (inset) as to progress of the bucket towards design grades per the 3D model uploaded into the controller. Another level of productivity gains comes from the telemetry fed into the site-management software and its virtual-reality viewing tools that provide real-time visual status of all equipment on the site.

The Digital Site

The complete digital site is more than just machine-controlled heavy equipment. Recent advances in heavy civil have been profound in connectivity, automation, and visualization. How long has automation played a role in heavy civil construction? As far back as the late 1980s when early GPS-guided (or informed) systems began to reach the market. But it...

Setting a Standard in Railway Renewal

A highly traveled section of the UK’s West Coast Mainline rail corridor (between Warrington and Preston) required the renewal of three miles (five km) of track among four major junctions. In an intensive, nine-day continuous spell, the innovation team at Network Rail completed the work almost 16 months earlier than proposed—and avoided disrupting rail travel....