Whilst all machine control laser receivers are all capable of receiving a laser beam, which by its very nature is millimetre accurate in most cases, this does not mean the system is “mm-GPS”.

Topcon mm-GPS, the only true mm-GPS, is heavily patented and was released by Topcon in 2005. It uses fan-beam laser technology only available to Topcon to pair the mm-accurate vertical positioning of the Topcon mm-GPS laser transmitter (the PZL-1 or the LZ-T5) with GNSS positioning to create truly mm-accurate 3D machine control positioning.

Other systems and other brands may claim they can do “millimetre”, but that simply means they are using an off the shelf standard flat plane or sloping laser transmitter and a simple 2D only laser receiver. This gives you a height and slope reference that is not matched to the 3D world. You might be grading at a fixed height at 3%, but you could be doing that grading anywhere on earth – the system doesn’t know. Also you are restricted by the range of the laser receiver window and the ground terrain, remember, the beam from the laser must be hitting the machines’ receiver at all times to receive an accurate 2D position.

With Topcon mm-GPS, not only are you able to use dozens of machines with the same laser transmitter and benefit from a vertical working range of 10m, you are tied into the 3D design by Topcon’s industry-leading 3D-MC software, then and only then are you using and reaping the productivity gains of the world’s only true mm-accurate GNSS positioning for machine control.

Click here to watch this technology in action.