Accuracy of 3 millimetres
The laser plane is the reference, the two receivers read it on either side of the blade, and correction happens while the work is being done.
Project · Autumn 2026
Laser guidance on a grading blade
Fitting an existing Stehr SUG35-T grading blade, towed by a Fendt tractor, with a 2D laser guidance system. Two laser receivers mounted on the blade provide height and cross slope, corrected continuously as the machine moves.
The system
What the system does
Fully automatic mode
The blade controls both height and cross slope. This is the mode for full levelling, where the surface has to come out to the settings given by the laser.
Semi-automatic mode
Cross slope is held automatically, height stays in the operator's hands. That is what a forest track needs, where the ground dictates the height.
End-of-pass function
At the end of a pass, the cross slope tips automatically to the other side. The operator drives back the other way without resetting anything by hand.
Design
Why two modes
A system that can only produce a perfect plane is useful on an earthworks site and nowhere else. By keeping a mode where the operator controls the height, the same machine handles a storage yard just as well as a forest track that has to follow the ground.
That height correction is manual today. The blade is, however, prepared for ultrasonic sensors, which will then follow the ground and adjust the height automatically.
Commissioning
Settings and calibration on the machine
Laser guidance is not set up in front of a screen: it is calibrated on the machine, on the ground where it will work. Reference height, blade travel, correction sensitivity and end-of-pass behaviour are all adjusted once the outfit is hitched up.
The installation was carried out on an existing machine, without replacing the customer's equipment.