Machine control, Takeoff and Drone Data Education and News

GPS machine control bulldozer pushing a full blade of dirt on a construction site under a partly cloudy sky.

Pro-Level GPS Machine Control Tips Every Contractor Should Know

Every contractor hits the same GPS machine control growing pains. We pulled tips from Caterpillar, John Deere, Komatsu, and Case -- four things their experts say consistently separate crews that make GPS work from those that don't.

Zach Pieper

Komatsu PC490LCi Underwater Wall Grinding

This Komatsu Construction 490LCi is grinding a wall, underwater, in a barge lock.

Quantum Land Design

Komatsu Proactive Dozing Control

Komatsu has added broader capability to their machine control line with Proactive Dozing Control (PDC) on their Smart Construction "i&q

Quantum Land Design

Komatsu iMC Excavator Video

Komatsu 128i Semi-Automated GPS system video

Quantum Land Design

Featured Posts

Infographic showing 4 GPS site control principles for machine control: use the design engineer's surveyor, surround the site with control points, calibrate to 5 or more points, and trust but verify with daily checks.

Get Your 3D Grading Under Control: 4 Site Control Principles Every GPS Contractor Needs to Know

Poor site control is the number one problem we see from contractors running GPS machine control. Not bad models or broken equipment. Site control, the first step on every single project. We've seen it cost contractors two weeks of production, turn a correct machine control model on a balanced site into a mysterious site export, and force concrete footings to be redone because the control was rotated 2.8 degrees. Every one of those situations was avoidable.

A screenshot from a drone flight planning interface titled “DJI Mavic 3E Flight Planning for Topographic Survey Mapping” shows a mapped area with a green grid overlay and waypoint markers on the left. On the right, advanced settings display sliders for side overlap ratio (80%), frontal overlap ratio (80%), and margin distance. A note emphasizes that 80% overlap provides good photogrammetry results and should not be set below 70% for 3D mapping. A YouTube play button is centered over the image.

Quantum Flight Pack - DJI Mavic 3E Training Hub

If you're running a DJI Mavic 3E on a construction site, this is where to start. These training videos cover flight planning, RTK setup, camera settings, and calibration — everything you need to get clean topo data that works with your GPS machine control system.