Operators of construction equipment are required to know and understand the needs of the jobsite as well as the operation of the equipment. Skilled operators, especially since the pandemic, are becoming hard to find. Adding technology to the equipment can, in some cases, allow apprentice and novice operators to become proficient quicker and help solve the labor shortage.
Technology developed for one purpose often is recruited to be used in other situations. GPS, the “find my way to where I want to go” technology found in smart phones and car dashboards, has more interesting uses when applied to construction. Used in surveying and positioning equipment accurately, GPS is making land prep more accurate and efficient.
Dig we must, goes the slogan of New York Edison, and they aren’t the only ones. Whether it’s landscaping, remodeling, new construction, or renovation, crews often have to dig where utility pipes and cables may be located. One bad move with the Bobcat and whole towns can be blacked out. Obviously, it is prudent to know where the underground utilities are before the dirt is moved.
Colorado DOT (Dept. of Transportation) has mandated the use of ProStar’s PointMan software for just that purpose. The new mandate requires that over 150 utility companies and more than 1,000 utility installation stakeholders are now required to use ProStar’s PointMan mobile software platform to capture and record the precise location of underground utilities.
Drones, wearables, and bricklaying robots: These are just a few of the new, cutting-edge technologies that are being touted for the construction jobsite. Today, analysts are pointing to pretty significant growth in all of these areas.
For the past few weeks, I have been talking about practical ways to connect the construction jobsite, looking at workers, materials, and connected construction equipment. Today, let’s address the topic of connected construction tools.
High-precision positioning information is increasingly used in fields such as agriculture, construction, and disaster prevention. Demand for such information is expanding worldwide for both land-based and maritime applications.
Leica Geosystems, industry leader in measurement technology, released Leica Spider v7.0 software suite, supporting Galileo and QZSS constellations as well as the GPS-L5 signal for improved network RTK correction services.
Dale Beard, CEO, Intelliwave Technologies, www.intelliwavetechnologies.com, Alberta, Canada, recently sat down with Constructech to discuss how the construction jobsite is changing with the help of sensor technologies.
Once upon a time, technology was pretty simple. There was a simple, serial process, input-process-output. Data was input, processed, and (hopefully) information came out.
The field challenges of construction cause issues in terms of tracking and managing employee time, with no financial losses due to inaccuracies and errors.