C.R. Kennedy, one of Australia’s largest importers and distributors of surveying equipment, has installed automatic guidance systems on earthmoving equipment all over the country.
In an industry first, the company has placed a global navigation satellite system (GNSS) on an articulated bucket wheel trencher, for use in northern Victoria where Goulburn-Murray Water (G-MW) is well advanced with its $2 billion G-MW Connections Project to improve the region’s irrigation network.
Many open channels are being replaced with high-density polyethylene (HDPE) pipe, and new control systems will allow irrigators to log-in by mobile phone to order the volumes they require.
Rubicon Water is supplying the control systems, and Rubicon subsidiary Retic Water, is currently laying 230 km of 500 mm HDPE pipe west of Echuca.
Using an articulated Trencor T1360 bucket wheel trencher, with a tractor at the front towing a bucket wheel behind, Retic looked to increase its pipe laying speed and efficiency.
Traditionally, a bucket wheel trencher’s operator steers the machine by eyeballing sighting poles placed ahead of the machine, while a surveyor walks alongside the machine continually checking the trench level and telling the operator to go up or down.
GNSS control of a trencher’s steering is yet to be mastered by anyone; however, C.R. Kennedy has already raised Retic Water’s productivity enormously with a GNSS system that has sped up and improved the accuracy of trench depth control.
Field tested
C.R. Kennedy’s first initiative was to source the correction data from SmartNetAus, a national network of GNSS reference stations that offers the necessary +/-25 mm tolerance on height.
With positioning corrections available 24/7, the trencher’s operator doesn’t spend time setting up the base station.
On the machine itself, two Leica CGA60GNSS antennas have been fitted laterally across the width of the bucket wheel’s frame.
One provides information on the bucket wheel’s position, while the two antennas combined give the orientation of the machine, its direction of travel and trench cross fall.
As the wheel digs deeper, the frame rises, thereby tilting the masts, so a Leica SP14 tilt sensor has also been fitted, to provide corrections related to the machine’s geometry.
A Leica iCON Total Station was used to map that geometry, while the brains of the whole package is a Leica iCG82 GNSS Receiver. It has a circuit board for each antenna and is tied into the existing hydraulic control system that raises and lowers the bucket wheel.
The connection has been done in such a way that the automated system works independently of the original system while still giving the operator manual control for override if needed.
The iCG82 computes the position of the cutting edge, applies the satellite corrections provided by SmartNetAus and sends the data to a screen in the cabin, where the operator gets a real time, 3D view of the bucket’s position in relation to the trench design depth at that chainage.
Retic Water is now able to consistently achieve a tolerance of +/-25 mm on its trench level and more frequently +/-15 mm.
The operator still uses the tried and true sighting poles for steering but can refer to his screen to confirm the machine is on the pipe’s centreline.
Through the on-board iCON Telematics service, the operator can record in real time the position and depth of the cutting edge and send the recorded data back to the project office at the end of each shift for quality assessment by the survey team.
Retic Water is working on several fronts of the project simultaneously and is swapping the GNSS system between the trencher and several excavators.
It’s early days yet, but according to Retic Water Survey Manager Will Spence, using C.R. Kennedy’s system on the excavators is improving productivity by a massive 50 per cent.
The trencher is working so accurately that the three excavators previously required for support are now free for other work.
C.R. Kennedy has offices with service centres in most Australian capital cities.
For more information on C.R. Kennedy’s products and services visit www.crkennedy.com.au