Shane O’Regan
Director iCON, Building Construction Field Portfolio, at Leica Geosystems, part of Hexagon
As building construction becomes more digital and projects become bigger, busier, and more complex, the range of layout, as-built and verification tasks increases. To ensure that these tasks are completed with speed and accuracy — while minimising mistakes and unnecessary rework — construction professionals turn to digital measuring tools such as total stations.
Manual total stations can help start your digital construction journey, but more challenging construction projects require more advanced solutions that deliver smarter workflows and automation to overcome the productivity gap on site. Integrating a Leica iCON robotic total station with the Leica iCON build field software does wonders for the productivity and efficiency of field crews. It also ensures that they stay aligned with their digital construction processes.
What is a Total Robotic Station?
THE HARDWARE
A robotic total station is a motorised theodolite with a laser distance metre that directly communicates with a tablet or controller. Construction professionals can operate it remotely and can complete far more calculations and updates than with a manual total station. The Leica iCON portfolio currently contains two different models of robotic total stations for construction: the iCR70 and the iCR80.
THE SOFTWARE
The Leica iCON build software is the key component of the solution. The construction-tailored software enables field crews to work directly with the design data and precisely perform the layout, as-built and verification tasks. It is simple to operate by anyone, even for employees without a professional layout background. To ensure that instructions and calculations are completed as easily and quickly as possible, these tasks happen in the background, ensuring the defined construction tolerances are met.
SERVICES
Technology solutions need to be tailored to specific needs for optimal return on investment. Support services such as dedicated user training and workflow optimisation help customers improve their processes. Connecting to a construction cloud service that enables field crews to work with the most reliable and up-to-date design data further eliminates the risk of mistakes. In the same way, on-site teams can deliver accurate field reports to the office as soon as the tasks are complete, enabling much quicker decision-making and progress tracking.
“As cost pressures mount and the industry faces a scarcity of skilled talent, construction processes will increasingly depend on digital capabilities.”
Why switch to Total Robotic Stations?
Robotic total stations are motorised, enabling them to turn automatically. The software enables advanced features not available in manual total stations, including the Dynamic Lock and Auto Stake.
In busy construction sites, constant obstructions can cause an instrument to stop tracking the target prism. Dynamic Lock anticipates your position and immediately starts searching for the prism, automatically relocking as soon as it is found. That minimises the need to initiate a prism search when you temporarily lose sight of the total station.
The Auto Stake functionality is most suitable for tasks such as hanger installations and wall penetrations. It automatically turns the laser beam and guides you to the next point you need to work on, eliminating the need to return to the instrument to aim at the layout points. For automatic grid measurements and verification routines for as-builts, you define the area, and the robotic total stations will take all the measurements independently until the task is complete.
When to switch
LARGE PROJECTS
As construction projects become bigger and busier, the scheduling and time constraints tend to get even tighter. A versatile robotic total station like the Leica iCON iCR80 makes laying out points faster and minimises interruptions. The time savings are considerable: “Thanks to this new solution, our layout specialists can layout faster and therefore have more time to ask questions and be more confident about what they are doing. This has helped to increase the efficiency within the team as they can complete their tasks quicker and with less stress,” explains Philippe Richard, at the time Productivity and Ergonomy R&D Director at the French engineering group Bouygues.
COMPLEX LAYOUTS
Buildings are becoming more complex all the time: Architectural designs can be challenging. And Mechanical, Electrical, and Plumbing (MEP) and Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC) installations can be highly complex. Automation and smart workflows simplify everyday tasks. Large and complex building designs led structural engineering company V in Melbourne, Australia, to adopt robotic total stations. They were working on a very special project, the Holme apartments project — a 14-floor mixed-use development comprising of continuously curved slabs, glazed curtain walls and balconies. It was obvious to see that it would take significantly more time and resources to complete with traditional methods. Douglas Thirkell, one of the construction surveyors admits that “The traditional approach to layout is laborious and time-consuming, and any delays can affect the work of other teams. Adopting digitisation and the Leica iCON robotic total station is really the way of future for us.”
CRITICAL ACCURACY
If your projects leave no room for mistakes and every millimetre deviation makes a difference, the investment into a robotic total station will be justified. Mike Sharp, CEO at Mike Sharp & Son — a general contractor company for luxury residential single- and multifamily houses in the United Kingdom — explains “for a kitchen manufacturer, for example, a deviation of just a few millimetres between two walls means rework: additional work, which causes time, money and, in the worst case, unsatisfied customers.” A robotic solution can help minimise errors and reduce rework by ensuring you layout and measure within tolerance for your tasks without sacrificing speed or productivity. As cost pressures mount and the industry faces a scarcity of skilled talent, construction processes will increasingly depend on digital capabilities. Amidst escalating demands for intricate designs and heightened sustainability standards, robotic total stations and digital workflows become best practice for a spectrum of tasks, including precise layout, meticulous as-built assessments and diligent verification processes.
“The traditional approach to layout is laborious and time-consuming, and any delays can affect the work of other teams. Adopting digitisation and the Leica iCON robotic total station is really the way of future for us.”
Douglas Thirkell construction surveyor at V Construction
Hexagon's robotic total stations can measure up to 1,000 points per minute, dramatically increasing layout productivity compared to manual methods
Digital tools can save as much as 30% to 50% in time on layout tasks, depending on the complexity and scale of the project.
Approximately 50% of large construction companies globally have integrated RTS into their workflows.
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