Rodradar has developed the world’s first excavator bucket with ground penetrating radar for detecting buried utilities in real time.
In a partnership with AMI Attachments, the Israel-based company has been testing its patented bucket with contractors, including with Stutsman Gerbaz of Aspen, Colorado, which has been testing the device for about six months.
“It scans the ground in real time,” says company owner Shay Stutsman. “And you can see utilities that are actually in the ground. It's the Holy Grail for earthmoving.”
Rodradar demonstrated the device, which it calls Live Dig Radar (LDR) Excavate, at ConExpo in March. It can detect utilities of all types – gas, electric, water, sewer, fiber, including those with PVC pipe – and displays their depth and distance on a touchscreen tablet mounted in the excavator’s cab. (Watch the video at the end of this story to see the bucket in action.)
“The operator finally has eyes to look into the ground whenever he is coming to any site and detect and avoid these utilities,” says Yuval Barnea, Rodradar vice president sales and marketing.
Barnea says the bucket is not meant to replace 811 and location services; it is a “last line of defense.”
“Imagine now the operator comes to a site, whether he has any prior information, whether it’s reliable or not, he has a tool now to detect and avoid hitting utilities while excavating,” he says.
