New Standard Will Ease Grade-Control Data Sharing Between Construction Machines

ISO communication standard lets workers send information from many service providers to equipment from multiple manufacturers.

April 1, 2020

Terry Costlow

A pending ISO standard will simplify data sharing between various equipment types and multiple data providers. (AEM)

The Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM) has teamed up with the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) to create a standard that will allow worksite operators and managers to utilize geographical and topographical data from multiple providers of machine grade-control systems. The benefits of the grade-control interoperability standard will be discussed at ConExpo/Con-Agg on Thursday, March 12 in the Tech Experience forum.

An ISO representative will provide an update for Part 4 of ISO 15143, which is designed for worksites that use a range of equipment types and gather data from a range of service providers like Leica, Trimble and Topcon. The Worksite Topographical Data Exchange document focuses on onsite radio corrections, digital terrain models, and overall jobsite information.

“Rather than being focused on fleet managers, this standard is for project managers, engineers and owners, people concerned with getting jobs done at the worksite,” said Sara Feuling, director of Construction at AEM. “This new standard will normalize data exchange at the interface between earthmoving machinery with grade-control systems and the site information system.”

Feuling provided an example for a contractor performing earthwork grading or similar jobs that require digital terrain models and other information supplied by a number of service providers. Requests for data will be sent to the cloud, and the relevant information will be transmitted back to the machine that requested it. “This standard is for server-to-server communications that run through a cloud-based system,” Feuling said.

The ISO Working Group plans to have a draft document by the end of this year. Final rollout is expected in December 2021. The working group that’s writing the document includes AEM members from a range of equipment makers and communications providers. That’s something show promoters would like to see more of. “One of the things we’re especially proud to show off is collaborations like this between AEM-member companies who would otherwise be competitors,” said Dana Wuesthoff, ConExpo-Con/Agg Show director.