Trimble Dredge Navigation and Management Solutions November 2018

Trimble Dredge Navigation and Management Solutions

UPG (Ultimate Positioning Group) and SITECH Construction Systems are Australia’s premier agents for sales and support of the full Trimble machine guidance range. This incorporates dredging guidance solutions to assist small and large dredge operators get the best out of their machine’s cutting time. We’ve fitted systems to large capital works dredges, building new channels at major deep-water ports, through to small specialist systems for operators whose main work is maintaining berths in marina’s where sand ingress is a constant problem. Trimble has also recently introduced new products into the Australian market which allow us to offer dredge navigation at a more affordable price point than ever before. At the budget end of the scale we offer Trimble HYDROpro Navigation - Dredge software in conjunction with the Trimble MPS865, twin antenna RTK rover, moving base and heading unit.

HYDROpro is fully configurable in the type of information it can display relative to the dredges geometry and the work being undertaken. It is a 2D only system but offers the dredge operator a full suite of graphical and numerical data displays plus control over logging and data reporting.

Background maps can be loaded from simple DXF’s, georeferenced tiffs, guidance lines and surfaces.

Vessel shapes and offsets are fully customisable and the main map display can be configured for night viewing and day-time operation.

Colour binning can be set to any colour for any depth, thereby allowing the dredge operator to adjust the visual representation of the work completed

HYDROpro is customisable in the type of information it can display relative to the dredge’s geometry and the work being undertaken.

All dredge and cutter head positioning can be displayed as well as any offset location on the dredge. Depth and RL vertical offsets to design are easily configured along with horizontal offsets from design centre lines, custom guidance offset lines, survey lines, channel edges and batters. Logging is easily customised and configured thereby enabling reporting of the dredges work. This can be exported in various formats to provide an indisputable record of where the cutter head has been.

At the other end of the spectrum there’s the CANopen based Dredge Management System working under control of the new Trimble Marine Construction (TMC) software. TMC is a fully 3D viewing capable system used in conjunction with sensors on the dredges ladder, densitometer, pump flow rate, main pontoons and spud carrier for dredges with moving spuds. It can take in real-time sounding data and tide reader telemetry and it’s customisable for a huge range of specialist sensors from the worlds’ leaders in the field to the more specialist and obscure.

It provides an unprecedented level of detail to the operator with real-time, close-up 3D representations of the cutter head interface. Surface displays for design, pre-dredge, progress dredging and any other surface information are easily configured and displayed.

Multiple displays can be configured such as those above, giving close-up representation of the cutter head interface relative to design and pre-dredge, in both 3D and profile view.

Custom dredge shape files from SketchUp, Autocad DXF, 3D Studio or a host of other formats can be used, all of which are fully interactive with the sensor information and move in real time as the dredge moves.

Numeric data can be fully customised to display anything to do with dredge geometry, surfaces, survey data and dredge production. Spud and cutter head offsets from C/L or guidance lines, chainages and any other off-sets can also be displayed plus, if you’re using an RTK system, real time/current tide level can be displayed along with absolute and relative offsets to any surface. Font sizes and colours are easily changed to suit lighting conditions and layout of the dredge wheelhouse.

TMC is not only for cutter suction dredges though - The software and sensor system can be customised and configured for crane and grab dredging, bucket dredging, barge mounted excavator and trailing suction hopper dredging, along with block placement guidance and multi-beam hydrographic surveying.

Having excellent software is one thing but an accurate and robust positioning system is always needed to feed into the system. For the majority of our marine systems, we recommend the new Trimble MPS865 GNSS. The MPS865 is a dual antenna RTK receiver and heading unit which apart from being a multi constellation RTK rover, uses the internal calculation between the two antennae, to give very precise heading data. Being a GNSS based system, this heading information is not affected by nearby steel or magnetic fields.

The MPS865 can use RTK corrections from a nearby base via radio, over the phone network using the Trimble VRS Now system plus it can receive free-to-air Marine Beacons for .5 metre precision at no cost. It has an in-built data radio, sim card slot and modem, wi-fi, ethernet, plus it has a variety of options for the level of accuracy required. I’m sure you’re aware that there are significant savings to be made if a dredge is being operated exactly where the engineers determine, thereby minimising over-dredging and/or re-work. The Trimble systems very briefly outlined above can aid in these savings and can be customised to give dredgers the ideal solution for their budget. UPG and SITECH have staff with many years of experience in the dredging and marine construction fields who can guide and assist in your dredging or marine construction positioning. Having been involved in some of Australia’s biggest marine projects in recent times and dredging all over the country, our specialist team know the idiosyncrasies of the marine construction/dredging world and are more than happy to discuss anything to do with this specialist field. Contact: Dene Oehme | Sales & Technical Consultant Ultimate Positioning Group Pty Ltd Unit 1, 13 Marlow Road Keswick South Australia 5035 T 08 8293 9402 M 0437 823 688 E dene_oehme@upgsolutions.com W www.upgsolutions.com