Over the last few articles I have shared my experiences working with 3D Machine Control from a land surveyor’s perspective.  I have shared what I believe to be opportunities for our profession.  I have received quite a few questions and comments from land surveyors who are also realizing the growth and impact of machine control.  Some of the comments have drawn a parallel between GIS and machine control and how GIS was a missed opportunity for land surveyors.  Many land surveyors are trying to avoid history repeating itself and want to learn and make informed decisions about the technology.  I subscribe to this philosophy and again I am happy to contribute my experiences.  Many of the land surveyors want to be involved and are asking “What do I need to know?” “How do I get involved?” and “What do I need to buy?”

Conversely, I am also receiving quite a bit of response from land surveyors who think machine control technology is destroying their business and that they eventually will have to layoff their work force and go out of business, or drastically reduce the size or their business, because the technology is eliminating the need for their services.  These people are obviously upset by the technological advancements and are blaming the construction industry and the machine control manufactures for business loss.
I don’t believe you can blame the construction industry for using technology to help them be more efficient in a very competitive market and I honestly don’t think you can blame the machine control manufacturers for the loss of surveying business.  After all, the manufactures are simply finding another use and another source of revenue for the GPS technology used for land surveying.  I guess you can say they are changing and adapting to help grow their market share.  I certainly can’t blame them for doing that.  That is just business 101.  

If you choose not to change and adapt to the market, especially when you can see it coming and others in the industry are able to adapt and change and do it quite successfully, that is not the construction industry’s or the machine control manufacture’s fault.  That is just poor business and you can’t blame someone else for that.    

For those of you trying to become part of the machine control market, you have to understand that becoming part of the solution is not just buying some software or taking an 8 hour class and becoming a machine control expert.  To be successful in the machine control arena you have to develop a wide ranging skill set from construction expert, software expert, GPS expert to positioning expert.  Most importantly, you need to understand that it takes time to acquire the all the skills needed to be successful at machine control.  

In response to the question of “What do I need to know?”  I believe the most important factor, in order to be successfully involved in machine control technology, is too really understand construction.  I have dealt with many land surveyors who feel they are construction surveyors but in reality all they do is calculate some centerline elevations or curb offsets and then send out a crew consisting of a party chief that does boundary surveying most of the time and a rod-man that knows little about construction and the construction process.  More experience is required for a better understanding.  The land surveyors that are out in the field, pounding hubs into the ground, and doing construction layout on a daily basis are more experienced to make the transition.

If you are going to be involved in machine control technology, you need understand how construction tasks are performed and why things are done in a particular order.  For example, you need to understand how roads are actually built, which equipment will be used to build it, not just how the cross section or profiles look on a set of plans.    In many cases, you may over build a sub-grade to accommodate a certain blade width on a piece of construction equipment or you may change how something is built, to make it more constructible.  There are always more ways to build a road (that still meet specifications) than are indicated on a set of plans.  You need to know how the contractor is truly going to build the project from beginning to end and why they are using certain pieces of equipment to do the separate tasks.  Why is it important to understand all of this?  Because these are the intricacies that are incorporated into the machine control 3D models that make machine control productive and more efficient.  

I realize that many land surveyors are looking for an immediate solution to fill in for lost business. But you should also realize that almost anyone can do a site calibration and anyone can build a 3D model.  After all, most of the software associated with machine control is literally designed for a construction person with little surveying knowledge.  However, in order to be successful you really need the understanding of a site calibration that only a land surveyor has and you need the knowledge of how to take a set of engineered plans and turn it into a 3D model.  This is basically what land surveyors have been doing for years, only it was called construction layout.  There are immediate opportunities available to the land surveyor, but in order to be successful over the long term you need to acquire the wide ranging skills needed to be a machine control and positioning expert.  

It is no different than the time it takes to acquire all the skills and more importantly, the knowledge, to become a licensed or register land surveyor.  Fortunately, many land surveyors have a strong background in GPS and fully understand positioning and construction layout and are a natural choice to become machine control experts.  

Next time I will continue with what you need to know, what you need to buy and how you can get involved.  

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