2023 Winter Newsletter

LASER SCANNING ADDED TO DIGITAL TOOLBOX

By Ryan Barker, CM-BIM, Virtual Design Manager

We have come a long way from the days when data collection on a Jobsite only meant grabbing your trusty tape measure and field book to record dimensions. While the tape, auto level, theodolite, and robotic total stations all remain essential tools for layout and data collection, laser scanning gives us a new level of precision and speed when it comes to recording the physical world. Wayne Brothers Virtual Design & Construction (VDC) group is proud to now offer Laser Scanning service.

How it works

Like the way a total station uses electronic distance measuring (EDM) to measure the distance from a prism, a laser scanner uses a laser beam to measure the distance from everything around it.

TECHNOLOGY GOLDEN AGE

By Eric Kesler, IT Director

Construction technology is entering a golden age. The conventional wisdom of the past several decades held that the pace of tech adoption in construction was among the slowest and most reactionary in the world. Any number of internal and external factors were blamed: the cost of adoption, the difficulty of changing processes without impacting deadlines, the lack of industry-specific solutions. Construction was not interested in tech, therefore tech was not interested in construction. 

Pushing against this headwind to “Pioneer Proactive Solutions” has always been a part of Wayne Brothers’ DNA. Now, in 2023, that wind is now at our backs. The market that once struggled to provide convincing products and services is now saturated with options, and today our challenge is not in seeking out any viable solution, but in finding the correct solution for our teams among a constellation of offerings. 

TRAINING WITH ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY

By Jim Rhodes, Vice President Civil & Infrastructure

As we continue to work towards scaling our training program and leverage technology, our next improvement will include first person videos and virtual reality sessions.

As you can see by the screen captures below, we are able to mount 360 degree cameras in the cabs of the equipment that will allow for a first person view of what is going on in and outside the cab..

What these screen captures don’t show you is how, when wearing a VR headset, the training user can look in any direction and see exactly what the operator would be seeing if they turned their head.  That would include the machine being loaded, in the case of the excavator, or the windrow on the blade in the case of the motorgrader or the haul path in the case of the off road truck, among many others.

We’re working hard behind the scenes to improve our training experience.  Stay tuned for new developments and training rollouts coming soon.