When considering your technology investment in machine guidance and/or automation several questions come to mind. It is natural to consider how much will this cost?  Do I need to automate all of my equipment at once?  Which piece(s) of equipment should I start with dozer, grader, excavator, scraper, GPS rover for supervisor truck? How much does each of the systems cost?  A lot of numbers are floating around out there, so a thorough understanding is helpful.

In a recent article on Return on Investment:  I quoted some figures from a recent user survey.  One of those numbers stood out in my mind.  That was the cost of an automatic 3D GPS (GNSS) system.  The number was OK for a simple ROI example, but it may have been misleading.  I would like to return to this subject of cost and break the numbers down in more detail.

First of all, it is important to understand the components of the system.  I will use a fully automated 3D GNSS machine control system for this example:

GNSS base station
Hydraulic valve control box                                                     
GNSS antennas and masts on the machine
GNSS receiver on the machine
Display/user interface for operator guidance in the machine’s cab
Machine-mounted sensorsGNSS telemetry on-board
Associated cables and mounting hardware

(In addition to these components, you can add 2D sensors for laser-controlled finished grade operations.)

If you subsequently want to add a second system for a dozer or a motor grader, there are half step and full step options. The half step involves “wiring” a second system to receive key system components from the first system investment. Below we discuss an example for the half step. But important to note, the cost of that second system is less than the first system by 40%. This is due to sharing the key components allocating the technology for two machines and two applications. Another reason for the lower, second system cost is that you will not need to purchase another GNSS base station. One base station broadcasts a correction to unlimited number of machine rovers. The full step of course is buying a complete second system.

According to Johan Larsson, President of Spectra 3D in Hayward, CA the best way to start is with the GNSS base station and rover.  This allows your personnel to get comfortable with the technology. For example, it is much easier to perform more sophisticated layout with less effort since the system does most of the “thinking.” The same is true for calculating earthwork quantities much more efficiently. Bid verification is another value application for investing in the base and rover. A proposed site can be surveyed or “topo’ed” to verify the accuracy of the starting surface data. This is important to the contractor so they know exactly what they are estimating before moving any dirt. The GNSS base station and rover investment ensures general understanding of surface management vs traditional stake management by working with digital terrain models (DTM).

The next step is to automate a motor grader for 3D and 2D operation.  This allows you to utilize the motor grader for fine and finished grade.  At the same time, a dozer is wired for 3D GNSS machine control.  (This allows you to work in the rough and fine grading environments.)  When the motor grader switches to 2D operation, or is idle, you can move the key system components to the dozer.  The cost of the dozer system is now just 15% of the motorgrader system working in the indicate-only mode.  If you want to upgrade the dozer to a fully-automatic system the cost is around 30% of the motor grader’s. 

If you need to automate a scraper, typically an indicate-only system, the cost is only 65% of the first motor grader system.

As you automate or add additional machines, you may want to just pay for the necessary masts, hydraulic control box, sensors and wiring for that machine and swap GNSS components from one machine to the other.  (For example: your rough grading is done and you can move components from a dozer and move them onto a motorgrader or vice versa.)  According to Larsson, once the contractor has learned how to use the systems and sees how much money can be made, more and more machines get automated. This is also a benefit of scalable systems design.

So, let’s do some math: if we express the cost of the first automated motor grader system as “X”; then what is the cost for the next system and the next? 

Motor grader system: X

Add Indicate only dozer: X +15%

Add Automated dozer:  X +30%

The point is you don’t pay double for the second system- you just move some components around and plan smartly.  Larsson indicates that most contractors start with just one automated machine, typically a motor grader, and expand outward from there.

So if you have been thinking that you have to automate several machines all at once or that the cost to automate the second or third piece of iron will double or triple your cost, think again.  Remember there are many options: laser-based systems, indicate-only systems, stand-alone fully-automated systems, systems you can swap components to, etc.  The only way to determine what the costs will be for your jobs and applications is to contact your local dealers and explore the possibilities.  Also consider that leasing machine control systems is an alternative that allows you spread the costs over several jobs and manage your cash flow.

Thanks to Johan Larsson for his input. Johan can be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it or visit www.spectra3donline.com

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