The construction industry has long struggled to integrate technology solutions across different brands of equipment and software platforms. Navigating between proprietary ecosystems is often tedious and sometimes impossible, making it difficult for contractors to maximize the value of their investments in various tools and systems.
It’s a challenge that has become ever more pronounced as supply chain issues have forced contractors to work with mixed fleets from multiple manufacturers and varying software solutions. Different subcontractors use machines from different manufacturers, with different guidance systems that all work with varying—often proprietary—file formats.
That’s begun to change. The construction industry’s advancement of much-needed open, standardized data exchange is poised to transform how contractors leverage technology to optimize their operations and stay competitive in an increasingly challenging market.
A standard for sharing machine data
As an example, Trimble is working on trials with manufacturers and developers such as Komatsu and Topcon to demonstrate how this standard can enable cloud-to-cloud data sharing on mixed fleet job sites. As well, developers at John Deere have revised their strategy to focus on delivering a 2D platform that lets technology solutions—whether Trimble, Topcon, Leica or some other solution—work on top of that platform and share data seamlessly as well.
The effects of the standard are also readily visible in software. For instance, Trimble expanded design file support for its Trimble Earthworks grade control software application to include the ISO LandXML file type, a nonproprietary data standard for civil engineering and survey measurement data.
Greater interoperability promises to unlock significant value for construction firms. It allows project teams to maximize the use of technology across their entire fleet, seamlessly integrating data from office to field and back to office. This can drive efficiency, productivity, and better decision-making.
As the ISO standard is implemented and sees wider adoption, the industry can expect to see a future where mixed fleets are the norm, and technology integration is a given rather than an exception. The formal publication of the standard is set to be published in the first quarter of 2025.
That said, the evolution of interoperable ecosystems requires more than just technical integrations; it also requires a focus on the practical, performance-based and user-centric aspects of construction technology solutions.
Collaboration on data sharing in construction
Beyond an industry standard, technology leaders are also working together to drive better data sharing and communication.
For instance, Trimble and Caterpillar’s extended joint venture will bring considerable benefits to the broader construction industry. Since 2002, the Caterpillar Trimble Control Technologies (CTCT) joint venture has led the industry in grade control solutions, delivering products that contribute to job site safety and productivity. The renewed CTCT agreement includes a specific commitment from both Caterpillar and Trimble to support open standards and interoperability.
The goal is to remove the historical barriers and complexities around integrating multiple technology ecosystems on a construction job site. The CTCT agreement facilitates deeper integration of datasets between Caterpillar machines with Trimble’s construction management solutions. For reference, the ISO 15143-3 standard, also known as the AEM-AEMP telematics standard,specifies the communication schema designed to provide mobile machinery status data from a telematics provider’s server to third-party client applications via the Internet.
Another key focus is to broaden the availability and distribution of jointly developed technology to more customers, beyond OEM partners. For instance, the updated CTCT agreement allows for third-party API integration, enabling OEMs and other technology providers to develop solutions that can integrate with Trimble’s Earthworks platform—a move that opens up the overall ecosystem beyond the Trimble-Caterpillar joint venture, helping accelerate innovation within the construction industry.
Another example of industry commitments to a more interoperable ecosystem is the recent partnership between John Deere and Trimble to fully integrate the Trimble Earthworks Grade Control technology with the John Deere SmartGrade platform.
Overall, industry commitments are helping enable the seamless integration of data across different machine types and brands, thus facilitating a more efficient and data-driven approach to decision-making on mixed-fleet job sites.
Across the industry, technology solutions such as grade control are shifting from simply optimizing the way a customer gets to grade to optimizing the way they run the project and using that information across a connected ecosystem.
Right now, many of the steps required to go from bidding and estimating to the field and, ultimately, to an ERP require a manual exchange of data. The goal is to make that movement of data as seamless as possible, to tighten the loop, not just to improve a project’s flow of information, but to help organizations plan resources with greater efficiency, productivity, and safety.
