As recently as 10 years ago, many of us would have scoffed at the idea that joysticks and computers would replace levers and mechanical linkages or that we would find ourselves relying more and more on space-age wizardry to do jobs that only a lifetime of experience had until recently allowed us to approach with total confidence.
In an industry certainly more noted for its conservatism than forays into the ragged edge of the technological envelope, you have to wonder what got into the equipment designers’ thermos bottles as the last century drew to a close and then when all this change will slow down and allow us to catch up. My suggestion…don’t hold your breath.
We Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet
View it as an aircraft taxiing onto the runway and adding power for takeoff where the really hard part is overcoming inertia and gaining enough speed for liftoff. It’s after that things begin to get moving. That’s where we are today with technology-off the ground, gear and flaps up, and headed off on course…but bound for where?
This is an especially interesting question when you realize its full implications in the context of construction where the limitations are no longer so much in the tools we use as in our imagination and desire to wring every last morsel of potential from newfound capabilities that we have only just begun to explore.
The moment the equipment manufacturers dipped into their grab bag of tricks and emerged with digital replacements for their timeworn analog mechanical systems, we crossed a magical threshold and stepped into a realm of incredible-I’m tempted to say infinite-possibilities bound only by our ties to the past.
Ponder the following if you will: The astronauts who went to and walked on the moon did so with orders of magnitude less computing power than we carry in our cell phones. Until three decades ago, the ability to determine your location in three-dimensional space was a laborious process that could take hours. Even when GPS units became available to the public, it was another decade before the government saw fit to stop dithering the signal and allow us access to really useful levels of precision. Today you can go down to your local shopping center and buy a computer, software, and peripheral equipment that would rival the best on the planet when the Berlin Wall came down, and you have in your grader or excavator or dozer or loader more intelligence in its barebones form than the Boeing 747 had when it came into service.
So What Do You Want to Do Today?
How about seeing not only where you are but also where you plan to be when the job is done? Watch any TV show on modern fighter aircraft and see what magic resides in the systems at the pilot’s fingertips and in some cases even beyond his conscious control. Look at the wealth of information available for call-up on a multifunction display or even the aircraft’s windscreen or canopy. While the aircraft is waffling around in the dark of night, or plunging through fog and clouds, sensors of various kinds are able to acquire detailed images in near-daylight clarity and display them in any of several ways that allow the pilot to perform the mission with confidence and precision. If this isn’t enough, the pilot can access data from the aircraft’s radar or threat-warning sensors and project them as overlays to visually enhanced imagery to aid in the solution of complex tactical problems. Do these capabilities seem too far-fetched for dirt-moving activities? They’re not. In fact, they are very much within the capabilities of equipment and technologies in use right now.
No longer regarded as whiz-bangs, laser and GPSs that guide or actually control blades, buckets, or the movement of entire machines are close to becoming standard equipment. Pretty neat, but the same information could be placed on the windshield, presenting the operator with a superimposed view of where to go and what to do to achieve whatever the plan calls for. How much more difficult is it to imagine the potential advantages of adding 360-degree video or infrared imagery to aid operators in confined or low-visibility situations?
Most of us have to gulp at the thought of remotely controlled equipment running around a job site, but do you doubt that this is possible? Already we see this happening in farming operations where tractors grind their way over hundreds or even thousands of acres under GPS control, making furrows or laying down seed. Closer to our activities are a variety of remotely controlled robots used to work with dangerous materials or in lethally contaminated areas, so how much sense does it make for us to put operators at even a slight risk by having them work in contaminated soils when we have the ability to accomplish these tasks remotely or even robotically?
What’s the Catch?The catch lies in the gulf that has evolved between the technologies and our understanding of how to meld them into our practices…a condition exacerbated by the sluggish economy. Yet, those are the realities we all face, and what has become increasingly evident is that the way we were in 2008 won’t cut it today, much less the future. If that’s true for us, it is equally true for the producers of the technologies that are today both the hope and bane of our existence. For us to reap the rewards of these marvelous technologies, both we and their providers must pull out the stops to overcome the knowledge deficit that stands in the way of their successful adoption.
