Here’s the rundown if you’re brand new to the idea of 3D machine control grading.

The most common piece of heavy civil construction equipment that you’ll find 3D GPS Machine Control on is the bulldozer. Yes there are different types of machine control you can put on a dozer, maybe we’ll get to them on another rundown, but for this one we will focus on 3D GPS Machine Control on a bulldozer.

There are 6 main components to a 3D GPS machine control system. They are:

• GPS system
• Position sensors
• Hydraulic Control
• User interface (screen in the cab)
• 3D surface model
• Control Box

Together these components work together to control the height and slope of the blade of the dozer to achieve the design surface grade. In essence, the components turn the dozer blade into a rover. This is how they work.

GPS System: The GPS is the main component of a 3D machine control setup. It provides positioning data to the system, so the dozer knows its exact location on the worksite.

Position Sensors: called tilt sensors on a dozer, they are placed on the body of the dozer to measure both the tilt (to the left or right) and the main slope (front to back) as well as on the blade to measure the blade slope.

Hydraulic Control: These systems are built into modern dozers now, pretty much since they changed the hydraulics to be controlled by electric solenoid valves from the traditional hydraulic valves. The electronic hydraulic control allows easy connection of the machine control system to have the ability to control the blade.

User Interface: This is how we interact with the 3D GPS system. We can input our grading specs, change surface models, monitor the system’s performance, and make adjustments as we need.

Control box: the control box brings all the components together. It takes all the inputs from the system and creates the outputs needed to put your road to grade. It takes information from the screen, GPS and position sensors, and turns it into commands for the hydraulic control system. I think it’s more apt to be named the magic box, because it magically keeps the dozer’s blade perfectly on grade.

Can’t forget about the 3D surface model. The manufacturers of these systems have spent COUNTLESS hours of research and development making these machines grade perfectly. And they do. But the most important thing to remember is that if the 3D surface model is wrong, your machine will PERFECTLY grade the WRONG grades. Make sure you’re checking and can rely on your 3D data.