Topcon Positioning Systems’ president and CEO Ray O’Connor talks to Gavin Schrock, Editor at xyHt Magazine, about automation, integrated solutions, smart phones, golf, and the coming era of continuous representation of reality. xyHt: You first joined Topcon in 1993. Did you imagine such rapid growth? Were there areas that you imagined that should have grown faster? Ray O’Connor: I didn’t think it would take 20 years to get this far in the automation of the construction and agriculture industries. It’s been the driving vision for the company for a long time. The two largest manufacturing industries in the world are construction and agriculture—anywhere from 7 to 10 trillion dollars worldwide—yet they are two of the least-automated industries. It was
Chisholm building students constructed and installed 24 timber pods for Melbourne Zoo’s Roar ‘n’ Snore facility, which enables visitors to experience the zoo in the evening (when many of the animals are at their most active), before retiring to a pod for the night. “This is the largest external construction project we have completed at Chisholm and it was a great challenge for our apprentices and pre-apprentices to rise to,” Mr Malcolm said. Start to finish, the project took 18 months to complete and involved some 150 students in total. “We got as many people involved as we could so they could all benefit from exposure to the construction process. The zoo paid for the materials and we
Company Co-Founder and NSW/ACT Region Manager Brian McLoughlin passed away on 17th January 2016 after a battle with cancer. He was 60 years old. “Brian will be sorely missed by his colleagues and so many of our customers, who had become close friends of his over the years,” said Garry Fleming, Aptella Partnering Services Manager and Brian’s business partner for almost 30 years. “His loss will be felt throughout our company and the industry – his passion, energy and gift for business were extraordinary. Brian was respected by all who worked with him and he loved to mentor employees to be the best that they could be. Our Sydney and Canberra branches in particular will not be the
Dr Shane Richardson is the Managing Director and Principal Forensic Engineer for Delta-V Experts, a Melbourne-based company that specialises in forensic engineering and safety solutions for the road transport and mining sectors. “Our work is primarily conducted for lawyers and insurance companies as part of existing or anticipated legal proceedings,” Dr Richardson explained. “We conduct a thorough damage analysis of the vehicle(s) involved in the incident so that we can build a report that is based purely on the facts and analysis of what happened.” In addition to road traffic and mining incidents, Delta-V Experts also offers safety solutions, including its award-winning Rollover Protection Systems (ROPS) for light vehicles, trucks, buses and mining machinery. Recently, the company invested
On-board weighing solutions designed specifically for loaders, compact loaders, telehandlers, skid steers and excavators empower the operator with accurate load information to eliminate return trips to the stockpile. This results in reduced machine wear, lower fuel costs and increased productivity. The Loadmaster Alpha 100 by RDS Technology sets a new benchmark for the industry, combining cutting edge sensor technology and signal processing techniques to deliver precise and consistent weight information for loaders. Designed to operate within the fastest loading environments and toughest conditions, compensating for uneven, sloped ground and restricted loading areas to reduce cycle times and maximise tons-per-hour performance. Weighlog Alpha 10 is designed for compact loaders, telehandlers, skid steers and is ideal for trailer and
2016 will see the release of Topcon’s new total station machine control solution for excavators. This revolutionary technology will enable high precision machine control in all environments, including areas where GPS positioning is unavailable such as tunnels, under bridges and inside buildings. Using a robotic total station and a prism mounted on the machine mast, Topcon’s LPS (Local Positioning System) solution for excavators utilises the all-new MC-i4 next generation GNSS receiver, GX-55 control box and TS-i3 slope sensors to deliver fast, reliable grade information to the operator. The new solution maintains an accurate position for several minutes even when the total station loses lock with the prism due to an obstacle. This world-first technology utilises an Inertial Measurement
Topcon Positioning Group announces a collaboration with DAQRI, a world leader in enterprise augmented reality, to collaborate on wearable technology designed to change the way construction, survey, mining and engineering professionals interface with the job site. Topcon and DAQRI — creator of the DAQRI Smart Helmet, an industrial-grade wearable that seamlessly connects humans to their work environments by providing information about the world around them — will work together to create a solution designed to make workers on the job safer and more productive through the use of augmented reality technologies. Topcon and DAQRI will collaborate to integrate DAQRI’s hardware and software solutions with Topcon positioning solutions. Powered by 4D Studio, DAQRI’s software platform for positioning, the partnership
Grader hire contractor Brett Chivers is consistently achieving better results than competitors using total station positioning thanks to Topcon’s unique GNSS and laser transmitter technology, mmGPS. Mr Chivers first adopted Topcon’s unique mmGPS solution seven years ago and says he hasn’t looked back since. “I first used it while working on the Bendigo Freeway in Victoria and a colleague recommended I purchase a system, not just for the technology but also because of the backup support provided by Topcon’s Australian dealer, Aptella,” he said. “I purchased a system and went on to win more work for a later stage of the same project. Once a client sees the system’s performance and the results it can deliver, there’s no
