On September 12, 2024, students of the Surveying and Geoinformatics course visited the company MTS Schrode AG in Hayingen with Prof. Dr.-Ing. Beetz. The excursion took place as part of the module “Selected Chapters of Geodesy” (sub-module “Digital Construction Site”) and offered students the opportunity to experience the theory of Building Information Modeling (BIM) and the digital construction site in practice.
After arriving in the Swabian Alb, the group was warmly welcomed by the Managing Director of MTS Schrode AG, Rainer Schrode, over coffee, tea and buttered pretzels. In a brief round of introductions, Mr. Schrode was particularly interested in the reasons why the students had decided to study and what their expectations were for the day, especially their interest in BIM and the digital construction site.
Two presentations gave the students an overview of MTS Schrode AG and an introduction to the topic of "Consistently digital in civil engineering and road construction". The first presentation emphasized the challenges and solutions of the digital construction site and the importance of transparency with the quote "It is more important to do the right thing than to do something right" (Peter Drucker). The second emphasized the importance of communication and collaboration in construction projects.
The students were then able to experience what they had learned in practice. They went to the construction site in Sonderbuch. In the construction container, there was first an introduction to the software used there. In two stations, the students were introduced to the seamless implementation of the 3D construction process:
Station 1 (GNSS): Here, the operation of the GNSS antenna from MTS was explained and the students were able to try out for themselves how it is used on the construction site.
Station 2 (excavator): The students were shown how easy it is to use the MTS 3D excavator control system and the quick-change system for excavators. The excavator operator demonstrated how he can follow the planned course of the terrain via the monitor and how the compaction of the soil is monitored.
After lunch together at the company and an exchange of the morning's impressions, a tour of the company followed, during which the group learned about the production processes - from software development to the manufacture of components and their use in construction projects.
This was followed by the highlight of the day: driving the excavator. After a brief introduction to the machine controls, all the students were allowed to control the excavators themselves, direct the bucket tip to marked points and dig up and unload the earth.
The day ended with a feedback session in which everyone shared their consistently positive impressions and opinions.
The students would like to thank Managing Director Rainer Schrode and employee Gerd Reimold for the informative and varied day, including the construction site tour, the great organization and catering and the time invested! A big thank you also goes to the professors Prof. Dr.-Ing. Beetz and Prof. Dr.-Ing. Austen for organizing and facilitating the excursion, which provided a practical demonstration of what the students had learned in the previous days.
