News

May 2, 2019

Precision from MoveRTK for robotization in road construction

Yesterday the following editorial article appeared on the website of Bouwend Nederland with the title: “Member benefit: precision of MoveRTK for robotization in road construction”. Nice article in which Tyker is discussed extensively.

By Redactie Bouwend Nederland, 1 May 2019

Member benefit: precision from MoveRTK for robotization in Road Construction

In the past 10 years, the use of satellite positioning systems such as GPS has increased enormously. Almost everyone has been familiar with it since the arrival of smartphones, tablets and car navigation. Many Apps want to know where they are in order to optimize their operation. Certainly now that autonomous driving is developing strongly and companies also want to measure with smartphones, the need for accurate and accessible positioning is increasing.

Applications for precision GPS

Current, already widely used applications for precision GPS include earthmoving, leveling, soil compaction and dredging. Design information and current heights can be seen on the display in the cabin, so that digging can be done more safely and without pickets. Systems also provide real-time information for checking zones to be avoided and at the same time collect as-built data while the machine performs the work. Everything can be 3D designed in advance and executed in practice, even the most complex designs. GNSS-RTK systems are found in dozers, graders, excavators, scrapers and kilvers. These forms of mechanization can grow into robotization in the coming years.

The Robot Plotter and the Road Profiler from Tyker

The Wageningen technology company Tyker is a specialist in robotizing work processes with satellite positioning. The Robot Plotter and the Road Profiler are good examples of robotization in road construction.

The Robot Plotter is a compact autonomous device that can quickly and accurately set out control lines on asphalt. The advanced control of the Robot Plotter uses a digital drawing with the control lines and GNSS-RTK. The steering lines can be used both to indicate where asphalt is to be applied and to indicate where the road marking should be.

With the Road Profiler, setting milling figures on asphalt is a thing of the past. The user can easily load a drawing and the milling numbers appear on the Road Profiler screen. The Road Profiler determines the position of the machine with GNSS-RTK. Because the Road Profiler is connected to the asphalt cutter, it continuously controls the milling depth. As a result, the milling depth no longer needs to be set manually.

What are the benefits of these devices for your company?

The products developed by Tyker save on labor. Saving labor is the driving force behind robotization. Because labor is expensive, the Robot Plotter and the Road Profiler quickly earn themselves back. In addition, safety improves because fewer people have to be in a job.

In addition to saving labor and increasing safety, the Robot Plotter and the Road Profiler also ensure high quality. In long-term, constant and high-precision work under changing weather conditions, computers are simply better than humans.

Finally, the remaining work becomes even more pleasant with this robotization: because isn’t it fantastic to set out control lines with a robot instead of having to do that with a spray can and a cord? And who doesn’t want the convenience of the Road Profiler, which means that the spraying of milling numbers on the road is no longer necessary?

Use member benefit MoveRTK

There are now also several members of Bouwend Nederland who use accurate GPS in road construction and who use the products developed by Tyker. For example, Boskalis, Heijmans, KWS and Van Velsen work with the Robot Plotter and Aduco and Freesmij, among others, use the Road Profiler.

Although it is to be expected that robotisation will result in less labor being required for work processes, the contribution of people to work processes cannot be ignored. Aspects such as assessing the quality of the work delivered and assessing the safety of situations are still tasks that people will perform because they are difficult to robotize. Even with modern techniques from artificial intelligence such as deep learning, robotising this remains a huge challenge. But the required satellite positioning, with MoveRTK for the national RTK corrections, is at least ready for the future.