#GNSS

Construction Machinery Engineering September 7, 2026

Bulldozer 101 — Understanding Crawler Traction and Blade Control

A bulldozer is a machine that unifies control of its earth-pushing blade and crawlers through hydraulics and the drivetrain. This article organizes ground pressure, traction force, blade attitude, GNSS/IMU-based ICT construction, the design thinking behind Komatsu's D61/D65 series and Caterpillar's D6 XE, and research into electrification and autonomous leveling — through both equations and a field perspective.

Fundamentals · 6 min Robotics Primer September 6, 2026

Sensor Fusion Primer — Building One World Model From Many Sensors

A camera is strong on meaning, a LiDAR is strong on geometry, an IMU is strong on motion — and each has its own blind spot. From the probabilistic and optimization-based math that fuses them (Kalman Filters, Factor Graphs) to concrete pairings like VIO (Camera×IMU), LIO (LiDAR×IMU), and BEV Fusion (Camera×LiDAR), a systematic tour of how Sensor Fusion turns several sensors into a single world model.

Fundamentals · 15 min Construction Machinery Engineering September 4, 2026

Construction Machinery Automation and Remote Control 101 — From i-Construction to Autonomous Haulage in Mines

Construction-machinery automation has advanced in stages: machine guidance, which measures blade-edge position with GNSS and IMU; remote operation, piloting by radio from a safe distance in hazardous zones; and autonomous haulage systems now running at mines and quarries. This article organizes MLIT's i-Construction policy, the history of unmanned construction dating back to Mt. Unzen-Fugendake, and the current track record of Komatsu's FrontRunner AHS and Caterpillar Command.

Fundamentals · 8 min Agricultural Machinery Engineering September 3, 2026

Agricultural Machinery Engineering 101: The Rice Transplanter — How Seedlings Are Moved Into the Paddy, One Hill at a Time

A rice transplanter is not just a machine that carries seedlings. This article reads it through equations and public materials — the feed system that cuts a seedling mat down to one hill at a time, the trajectory of the planting claw, row/hill spacing and depth, paddy-surface tracking via floats, and everything from walk-behind machines to robotic units.

Fundamentals · 21 min Sensors & Hardware August 16, 2026 Lab

How GNSS Works and Key Products — u-blox, Trimble, Fixposition

RTK combines satellite positioning with correction data from a base station, shrinking the several-meter error of standalone GNSS positioning down to centimeter level. We work through how dual-frequency positioning cancels ionospheric delay, how u-blox's ZED-F9P drove low-cost RTK into the mainstream, Trimble RTX and Japan's own Michibiki (QZSS), and the real-world example of Kubota's nationwide network of 342 RTK base stations for farm machinery — and how each of these changes what positioning accuracy you actually get.

Fundamentals · 13 min