Technology wins for Trimble

By Keith Newman

The technology which allows Team New Zealand to accurately pinpoint its boats as they are put through their paces in the Hauraki Gulf is winning international interest for Christchurch-based development house Trimble Navigation.

Using technology which by-passes the US Defence Department's restrictions on global positioning frequencies, Trimble has been providing centimetre accuracy to the yacht design team for over a year.

Trimble is about to launch a commercial product using the same technology but for the excavation and earthmoving industry. It is currently working with heavy machinery company Caterpillar in the construction market and had strong interest in using its new application for contracts in Chicago, Britain and Australia.

The Clearwater Golf Course in Christchurch is being developed using the global positioning satellite (GPS) technology, which delivers accurate data to bulldozer drivers involved in the landscaping.

"Drivers have ruggedised screens in the cab so they can see what needs to be done, allowing them to control the blade to within centimetre level," says Trimble Navigation New Zealand managing director Alan Townsend. The new product will be launched at the Construction Federation Conference in Queenstown.

The US Government has essentially nobbled global positioning systems, keeping more "accurate" applications to itself. "You can never precisely know whether you are 20 metres or 100 metres because they alter the signal".

In military applications, the US and its allies have decoders which improve that accuracy to about 10 metres, says Mr Townsend. "The provision of differential technology means you can provide accurate positioning to a sub-metre level for a whole range of applications across a range of about 200km and opens up opportunities in agriculture, police vehicle and ambulance tacking, despatch and a lot of land-based applications."