Machine control is the equipment that puts the design in the cab of an excavator, a dozer or a grader, so the operator can see where the bucket or the blade is against the drawings and work to grade without a person in the trench checking. It is made of sensors on the machine, usually a GNSS receiver, and a screen. This is the plain explanation, written by a survey company that sells one excavator system and fits it, for anyone deciding whether it belongs on their machine.
The problem it solves
Without it, grade is checked by stopping: a grade checker with a rod and a laser or a level, stakes with offsets written on them, the operator climbing down to look. Every check is a pause, every missed check is over-dig or a redo, and the person checking is standing where the bucket swings. Machine control moves the check onto a screen the operator can see while the bucket is in the ground.
What goes on the machine
- Angle sensors on the boom, the stick and the bucket. Together they tell the system where the bucket tip is relative to the machine. On the XFIX EX30 the bucket sensor is a sealed unit that talks over Bluetooth, with no wiring and no drilling.
- A GNSS receiver, on 3D systems, so the machine knows where it is on the site to a couple of centimetres. It needs a correction, from its own base station on the ground or from a network over a cellular signal. The EX30 kit includes its base.
- A screen in the cab that shows the bucket tip against the design: how far to cut or fill at this point, the slope, the alignment. On the EX30 that is a sunlight-readable 10.1-inch tablet running the guidance app.
- The design. On a 2D system, a grade and a slope the operator types in. On a 3D system, a surface and linework built from the engineer’s drawings and loaded onto the screen.
2D, 3D, guidance, automatics
A 2D system knows depth and slope relative to a reference and suits pads, trenches and basements. A 3D system knows where it is and carries the whole design, and suits anything with a changing grade. Within 3D, guidance shows the operator the design and the operator works the levers; automatics hold the blade or the bucket to grade by driving the hydraulics, on machines that support it. The EX30 is 3D guidance. Read 2D vs 3D machine control for which work wants which.
What it is not
It is not a replacement for the survey. The design still has to sit on the ground where it was drawn, which means control points and a site calibration before the first bucket, and it is only as good as the design file somebody built. It is not autonomous: the operator still runs the machine. And it does not make a poor drawing better; it makes a good drawing reach the bucket.
What it costs
The big brands sell by dealer quote. The XFIX EX30 is $14,499 CAD for the hardware, with installation quoted for your machine before you pay and a weekly rental for crews who need it for one job. The machine control cost guide has the full picture, including what a design file and a calibration involve.
Read next
- Excavator machine control: the system we sell, priced, and how it compares.
- GPS for mini excavators: a Kubota KX057-5 we fitted in Vaughan.
- Machine control data prep: how the drawings become the design on the screen.
Tell us the machine and the job and we will tell you what it needs, without a sales call first.