Robotic Total Station boundary surveying WV

John;

I'd have to say that in your situation the advantages of a robotic TS are much less pronounced than they are for others. To my way of thinking the main advantages of a robot are 1) reduction in staff and 2) accuracy of pointing (mostly in regard to vertical work). Both of those major advantages are more or less negated by the nature of your work. I'm sure others may have a different opinion, but that's just my 2 cents worth.

I will second Randy on this.
The main advantage ( in addition to what Randy pointed out) of a robot is in having many shots from each set up.
I have done a lot of topo and layout as well as traversing with a few side shots with robots.
For boundary work the amount of walking one man has to do coupled with trying to find that ONE STINKIN LEAF that is preventing a shot actually SLOWS you down.

John,
I've been working the pipelines here in WV for the past year, so I feel your pain regarding the steep terrain. Having over 15 years experience working in New England for a few Surveying/Engineering firms using Total Stations 99% of the time, I'm a believer in GPS and a single carbon-fiber rod. Think of the advantages of the network to be able to set points in close proximity of corners to do actual gun work and a buggy to cart yourself and equipment around.

Scott

John,

I'm in Central & Southside VA and I have a similar issue with Robotics. I recently demo'ed the Leica TS12 & Carlson CR5. I currently own a Topcon 8203.

In terms of weight and lugging it around: The new instruments are night and day lighter than the Topcon 8203, which is bulky not just b/c of the instrument itself, but also the external radio, and the radio on the rod and the rc2 unit on the rod.

The new ones are a ton lighter and smaller. They will fit in a conventional total station backpack, have long range internal blue tooth up to 1000ft. This also allows you to walk to the transit and turn angles manually without having to change any setup on the data collector. I thought that was a big plus as putting my 8203 into manual total station mode is something I've never quite mastered.

I would definitely be concerned with the tracking potential on steep grades. I think they have an angle window where it will search for you, I'm not sure what that limitation is, but I think on a mountain it can be exceeded pretty easily.

Robots excel in the open like on construction projects, etc.

I have made the decision to invest in a new robot or two and will be finalizing the purchase in the next couple of weeks, I am planning to eliminate an instrument operator position that way, was losing someone anyway. I like the idea of not having to pay payroll taxes on it and not having to worry about whether it's going to call in sick, or if it's girlfriend is going to breakup with it. I just wish it could cut bushes 🙂

What type of equipment do you currently run?

Lugeyser, post: 333163, member: 1249 wrote: I just wish it could cut bushes 🙂

:good:

All I have right now is a Leica TCR305 total station. It's old and needs to retire. It's light and does the job but it's time to get something better.

I'm in the process of buying a gps unit. Not sure what kind at this point. Will be demo'ing one tomorrow.

I was thinking if it was worth the extra investment I would try to get a Robotic instead of the Leica TC06 I'm looking at. But I was trying to figure out if it would be worth it and it appears it wouldn't be.

I get small jobs quite often but even with those I'll have several setups due to trees.

Lugeyser, post: 333163, member: 1249 wrote: John,

(snip)
I like the idea of not having to pay payroll taxes on it and not having to worry about whether it's going to call in sick, or if it's girlfriend is going to breakup with it. I just wish it could cut bushes 🙂

It also will never buy a survey, groceries, tickets to the game or open a business and hire some one.

But at our level I understand the position you are in. At least you do employ some one.:good:

One thing that will take some getting use to is the fact with a robot you will not
be looking through the scope and sighting the target the way you want that will
give you the warm and fuzzy feeling.

It takes awhile to overcome that using a robot and not actually sighting with the gun and
relying on what the data collector says.

Sure a robot turns tight angles consistently but doing mostly boundary it may not give
you the comfort level that you have been use to.

Takes time to put faith in the robotics.

John
I have both. A Trimble GPS R6 rover and a Leica 1205 Robot. Some times the robot stays in the truck and sometimes its the GPS rover. It depends on the type of survey and tree cover. The robot does a good job turning multiple sets of angles. When it comes to a section breakdown, I run the GPS rover and drop in some new control points on the site either as a check-in point for the GPS rover or as a control point for the robot.

You can get used to robotics. I spent some time behind the robot watching it go thru angle sets and then doing the same set manually to get the warm and fuzzy.

Good luck

Bob

partychief3, post: 333161, member: 9053 wrote: I will second Randy on this.
The main advantage ( in addition to what Randy pointed out) of a robot is in having many shots from each set up.
I have done a lot of topo and layout as well as traversing with a few side shots with robots.
For boundary work the amount of walking one man has to do coupled with trying to find that ONE STINKIN LEAF that is preventing a shot actually SLOWS you down.

Exactly. That one stinking leaf. Every single time.
Friends don't let friends use robots in the woods.

I'm in the same boat. My work is in the woods. I use post processing GPS to set baselines to begin traverses from. RTK would give me faster baselines. And if I did have an occasional wide open job, RTK would be great. A robot would help me more because I'm now working solo due to my buddy got in bad health. But where a robot would shine is in stakeouts! Rod and data collector in hand. Stake sack rods and hammer. Take a shot, correct, and set that point. No more walking back and forth to the gun. No more setting bi-pods and rods. I'm good! But it takes me 3 trips back and forth to the gun and rod before I get a rod set and set position recorded. A robot would save me 2/3's the time. At 63 I'm still fit. But it gets old walking back and forth. I do get topos all the time. I usually use the engineering firms staff. Like tomorrow I have 2.5 miles of transmission line structures to stake. A robot would put me at the work end of the gun. I've known for a very long time, the gun follows the front rod. Can't go any faster than the head rodman can or will take you. RTK would be great on this project. Wide open sky in a 100 foot ROW. Wish I had both. Will one day soon. Lord look kindly upon this old surveyor!

gschrock, post: 333189, member: 556 wrote: If you do go robotic, and also GNSS there are advantages in being able to use them integrated (i.e. same DC and database. being able to run the GNSS head on the rod above the 360, etc). As I get older, lugging the the TS over hill and dale gets tougher, so am looking at some small robots. Of course they do not have the range of the high end ones but the woods limit doable range anyhow....
Can anyone recommend a small robot?

R2D2 😛

For boundary work sure, for woods topo not so much.

gschrock, post: 333189, member: 556 wrote: Can anyone recommend a small robot?

I saw a new Leica TS16 last week and it looked notably smaller to me that some of our current instruments, but that may just be a Swiss Jedi Mind Trick. I'm probably buying two TS16's and an MS60 before the end of the year.

UFsurveyor85, post: 333188, member: 8100 wrote: Exactly. That one stinking leaf. Every single time.
Friends don't let friends use robots in the woods.

Get a Trimble S6 with a MT1000 prism. Screw the leaf and the dude standing behind the gun.

exbert, post: 333463, member: 6143 wrote: Get a Trimble S6 with a MT1000 prism. Screw the leaf and the dude standing behind the gun.

The MT1000 is slick. Even an S3 or the new S5 would work well, especially when it comes to verticals on those steep hills. Wish I had one when I lived in Washington.

Geodimeter quality has never been, and will never be surpassed.