Private Giving
Penn State Intercom......November 14, 2002

High-tech GPS grade-control
system donated

Students in a half-dozen academic majors at Pennsylvania College of Technology will receive valuable training with a cutting-edge grade-control system that relies on Global Positioning System (GPS) technology to move earth.

Thanks to contributions of equipment and expertise from Keystone Precision Instruments, Allan A. Myers Inc. (a company of American Infrastructure) and Flora Surveying Associates, students in the Heavy Construction Equipment Technology, Heavy Construction Equipment Technology-CAT Emphasis, Environmental Technology, Forest Technology, Construction Management and Civil Engineering Technology majors will be working with the Trimble "SiteVision" GPS system.

Keystone Precision Instruments, based in Whitehall, donated the Trimble-built system, valued at $100,000, and installed it on Penn College's Caterpillar D4H bulldozer.

The Worcester-based Allan A. Myers Inc. donated the use of a Caterpillar D6R bulldozer to demonstrate operation of the equipment recently, and the company also provided training on the GPS equipment for students and faculty.

Flora Surveying Associates, based in Gloucester, Va., developed a computer model (using "Terramodel" software) for the training session held at Penn College's Susquehanna Training Site, converting construction drawings to a format that the receivers on the bulldozers used in the training could understand.

The Trimble SiteVision GPS System allows for a project's design surfaces, grades and alignments to be maintained from within the cab of earth-moving equipment. The system will enable the college to provide operators with the training they need to do earth-moving projects without having to rely upon numerous surveying stakes to check grades, elevations and slopes.

A GPS receiver on the machine computes the exact position of the GPS antennas many times per second, and an on-board computer determines the exact position of each tip of the blade. It then compares the positions to design elevation and computes the cut or fill to grade.

At the recent training session, Keith Border, president of Keystone Precision Instruments, said companies using the state-of-the-art GPS technology are reaping immediate financial benefits, and he predicted it will become the industry standard within the next five years.

"They're moving dirt once, instead of several times," he noted, adding it's helping firms land more business by affording them an edge in the competitive contract-bidding process.

Back