AGTEK R & D Wiki

SmartBlade is an Android program intended to be used in heavy equipment as an indicate only RTK GPS interface. It draws elements from SmartTrack like the simplified tablet oriented interface and remote management features but requires the RTK GPS underpinnings from SmartGrade. The marketing group sometimes refers to it at SmartGrade MC so we shouldn't get too attached to any name until they make their mind up.

Machine Control acts a lot like SmartTrack in that it pushes things like keys and file selection down so the actual operator doesn't interact with those elements very often. The flow should be this.

1. Ordered List Item

1. Ordered List Item

Allowing Alignment from MC

  Settings from Job Manager to disallow.

The feature set is an amalgam of things we've done for other android programs with a couple of exceptions. The new features are Section offset and all the visualization and settings required for the blade

Question and Answer

Is there somewhere I can get the typical settings we would use for the blade (old documentation of previous software)?

Let me see if I can dig something up. I was not planning on doing that right away and to work with Mike on how to enhance the old look to something better.

Are we following (sort of) previous software?

Somewhat. There's some good things and some bad things about the old stuff and I'm trying to reexamine what we keep and what we remove.

Have you thought about the screens you might want to see for alignment?

Except for dialogs I plan to steal it from SmartGrade. Also realize that alignment from this is supposed to be a narrow case. It will be one of those things that the jobsite manager can disable from even being done. It will also not come up if there's any recovery info in the file at all.

Any other screen than 2D/3D/Sheet?

Not planning on it.

How does the on screen cut/fill graticule work?

It changes to modulo amounts depending upon the amount of cut or fill. The indicator moves as the operator changes blade height. The idea is to give them feedback on changes as they move the blade. This is something we do on the old stuff. I didn't have it at first but as we went over it I realized it was useful feedback. The stadia lines amounts should shift as amount changes. For example, when we get below a foot, I'd expect the stadia lines to show tenths. Almost like a progressive zoom. You might dig up the code for the old MC to see the details.

Does this app run differently for highway and site?

I don't think so. We haven't in the past. Since we don't report northing/easting anywhere, station-offset doesn't necessarily matter/

You show an image of a road but no Station-offset data. ?!?

Nope. This is for an operator. He doesn't necessarily know or need to know. BTW, it was a subdivision road anyway.

Do you know where we pull cross-slope and main-slope data from? Live or design/subgrade?

Check the code but I believe the crossslope comes from the triangle the blade gradepoint is over on the surface. I'll have to lookup main-slope because I don't remember.

Can the new info along the top change or is it set to these four?

I think it's pretty set. The only option I can think of is to allow a surface change (design/subgrade) by tapping. Even that is iffy here because you don't really want operators messing with that.

Is the 3D blade icon just located on top of the graphics but matching the blade location?

I'm not quite sure what you're asking but the 3D blade is always exactly where the GPS says it is. The blade itself is a little different than any other android program because it's dynamic based on the parameters set and the cut or fill amount. As I mentioned, I'm probably going to pull Mike in on this because he's going to have to expand the tool he uses to render instruments, etc.

Cut/Fill is shown on the blade icon as red below the blade bottom and blue above the bottom to indicate the depth to on-grade?

You're right, I have it drawn wrong for a cut. I had to go look it up. Haven't done anything with the old stuff for so long.

I have assumed the flow to be Start App - Get/Check License - Get/Load file - Do Alignment - Ready to go.

I'm going to change it up a little bit. It's:

• Start App
• Check License
• Start GPS initialization. We're going to need it fairly soon in the startup process for setting grade
• Check for updated config (file, etc.) on server like SmartTrack. Either load new file or last file used depending on server change status.
• Check for recovery data. If present just load it. If not present and the job manager enables it, tell the user that no recovery data is present and ask him if he wants to align. (This is new, we used to have a separate program to do alignment but the portability of the tablet means that an owner/operator might choose to do things this way without owning SmartGrade)
• (New)After recovery display the Set Grade window. Set Grade is something that typically an operator would do every time the machine starts up on the old MC. Because the alignment recovery is usually done with a 6 foot rod and the GPS is on a 10 foot mast, we needed a way to put in that offset just for that machine. The process is to either be over a known point or have a handheld unit to shoot an elevation at the base of the blade to calculate the difference and apply it for this session. The process isn't new but putting it into the startup flow is. There is some debate to this and we'll allow the operator to cancel and bypass this step if he chooses. “Set Grade” will remain a menu option as well and just brings up this window.

Are we going to record or upload anything?

You should assume yes. I don't think we'll show the tracks on screen but we will probably upload them. We've even discussed doing some special things like recording grades from the machine roof antenna when backing up to record grades. That and some new equipment I have coming in in April with inclinometers is going to make some of the instrument setup screens a little fluid for now. I don't know all the extra parameters that stuff may require until we figure out what we have to work with.

This means that all I'm expecting for Story 1 is setting up the main screen and putting marker where the blade will go. You can't do a lot more. You can do the section command as soon as I figure out where I wrote it up. ( I know I wrote it up somewhere.)