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. On program start prompt for login information. After login, program sends GPS track status to server so the tablet is identified for JobSite manager
2. Open to the File menu to allow choosing of a file.

1. Login is done in the background like SmartTrack
2. Last File opened is used by default unless server check shows configuration changes
3. The GPS begins it's initialization process.
4. Recovery is automatic with no alignment related messages (see below for no recovery present in file)
5. Question dialog (“Do you wish to set your elevation”, Yes-No) displays. Ideally the message box would be drawn so the user could see his location on screen for verification that he is where he thinks he is.
6. Pressing Yes goes to the Set Elevation screen. No uses the alignment based elevation. The user can always trigger Set Elevation again by picking it from the menu.

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

Set Elevation displays right after the file is open. While we've traditionally taught users to always use set elevation at the start of each day, we've never put it as part of the flow. I think we should make it part of the flow. At worst if the user doesn't want to do it, we're only forcing him to press cancel to accept the rod height used while aligning.

At this point we do not store the last offset although I may be convinced to do so in the future.

As per Mike C and Ted (05-07-2014): Set Elevation should lose the Apply button, Elevation and Adjustment cannot be edited, but the Known Elevation can be shot or typed in. The Adjustment value will update during typing or after the shot. Preferably Set Elevation will be a second window that slides in from the left or bottom. The Adjustment and known elevation should be cached on the device and matched to the recovery BM's LLA's (which will require caching them as well). If the BM's are the same then allow a simple apply of the adjustment, otherwise the adjustment should be set to 0.0.

I haven't been satisfied with the look of the cut/fill numbers, arrows and crosshairs because they're too small and too cramped on this aspect ratio screen. Here's some refinements.

• The crosshairs are useless until under .5 of cut or fill and in fact there's no reason to display them until we get to that level. When we do display them, lets make them bigger too so we can see them. When you reach under .5 feet you aren't steering as much as just controlling cutting height
• At over .5 feet use just the cut/fill arrow and bigger text.

For Metric blade dimensions use 2 cm tic marks, 8 tics to a side

Here are some example screens:

Settings for Machine control follow the SmartTrack model since this is intended for tablet most likely running in a landscape configuration. There are substantial differences but Machine Control shares the ability of remote management. Potential tabs are:

Change the old View Screen out to the improved, SmartPlan layer style View Screen

This is the same as SmartTrack's File Tab

(insert graphic here)

While the GPS tab looks similar to SmartTrack this is the RTK enabled version. This potentially may be the place where we enable/disable RTK tracking.

(insert graphic here)

This tab removes the Screen option and instead substitutes the Blade diagram to go along with the Machine and Login screens.

The Blade diagram is dimensioned set of controls that control how the blade (instrument position) appears on the users screen and where the survey and grade points should be positioned relative to one another. The default state of this should be enabled because customization for equipment is likely and should be user accessible.

Blade Width The width in feet of meters of the machine blade. This length is shown as scaled value on both planview and the 3D view.

Mast Offset GPS antennas often aren't matched exactly with one end of the blade. In fact they're sometimes mounted in the middle depending on the machine. Mast Offset is the way we adjust for that.

Grade Offset It's not uncommon that the operator wants the grade from the trimesh to not be directly under the GPS antenna. This dimension allows them to do so.

Units The unit are somewhat self explanatory. The only choices are Feet and Meters.

Mast Height Mast height may turn out to be an optional/not shown value. It's used currently with the SmartSlope feature in the PC version of Machine Control. We do not intend to do SmartSlope in the Android version. That said, the Javad GPS systems are supposed to have inclinometers and to use those we will likely need to know the mast height.

Behind This specifies the relationship from front to back of the antenna to the cutting edge of the blade. This number can go negative to reflect being ahead of the blade.

Grade Point Controls which side the measure point is done from as well as allowing for multiple grade point offsets to be specified. Effectively the grade offset needs to store three values instead of one. Each value reflects the grade offset for the three grade point settings. The user has an onscreen control that shifts the grade point without entering the Settings.

• Rework Set Elevation Screen
• Record points - Save capability
• Tracking - ability to upload tracks (like simpletrack,smarttrack)
• Direction based on RTK and autonomous Tablet GPS (research feasibility)
• Alignment Capability when none present

The functionality of Set Elevation is working fine but continued usage of Bill's version of it has me making modifications. Bill's version of the dialog showing the actual position while doing a set elevation was an improvement over mine that took the entire screen. After using it a while and discovering that portrait orientation is actually a nice alternative to landscape I'd like to modify the dialog to look like those below. I've done the following in these screens:

• Widened the Landscape pane slightly for better spacing
• Simplified the instruction wording and moved the controls to be more inline with the instructions.
• Used a slightly smaller version of the keypad used in the Blade Preferences rather than the default Android keypad. The problem with the Android keypad is it takes way too much space and makes the Elevation readouts at the top get pushed off the screen. Having those values visible while type elevations is very useful and I want to preserve it.

The interface for recording points is relatively simple but the implication of recording points requires more functionality like saving, etc.

• Use the Streaming button button from SmartGrade Grade mode as the method of shooting points
• Add Save to the menu along with the Save Screen. Look for the dirty flag when exiting to ensure saving.
• Allow tapping the View Layer name/numbers on the top info bar to switch layers.
• Change the View screens over to the new SmartGrade view menu

Previous Machine control system versions late in their life added tracking to their capabilities. The difference here is that we wish to use the tablet's autonomous GPS for the tracks instead of the RTK device. Unfortunately RTK is somewhat notorious for not necessarily tracking well due to a different optimization

Compasses have proven to be unreliable in machines or with high vibration. Determining the direction of the machine is useful however.

The SmartGrade View screen may be ported to SmartBlade before Story 2. This matches the SmartGrade implementation.

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.)