6 minute read
MEET THE BOSS
MEET THE BOSS: THE KUSKOFF FAMILY
GRADERMATE
GraderMate, launched in July 2021, and is a new automatic hydraulic grade control system developed and manufactured for excavators by the enterprising Kuskoff family company based in Hindmarsh Island, South Australia.
The family previously ran NCMotion, a robotics and automation company led by their father, Illya Kuskoff. NCMotion was involved in factory automation, installation, manufacture and repairs of factory CNC machines and sold and set up automated moulding machines for over 20 years. Apart from Illya, the GraderMate family team includes his wife Suzanne and sons Peter and Paul with the family’s Border Collie, Umi, always ready to lend a paw. Peter has been programming since he was in primary school, while Paul has a background in computer science at the University of Adelaide. Suzanne oversees the operational and marketing aspects of the business, including the firm’s website gradermate.com and involves herself in GraderMate testing. THE GENESIS OF GRADERMATE
Peter Kuskoff explains, “Before GraderMate, we were in factory automation where we worked primarily with plastics. We had robots pulling wheelie bins out of big injection moulding machines and creating interfaces for the robotics. It was general programming work.”
For a change of pace, the Kuskoffs also owned a farm and purchased an excavator to support their agrarian endeavours. Peter recalls, “We soon discovered excavators are pretty hard to use when you’re trying to do accurate surfaces because of the way the boom, arm and bucket move in arcs.”
He continued, “We then started observing automation was rare in the construction industry, especially with smaller contracting firms. Thus, we saw an opportunity to use our automation experience to develop a system specifically for excavators.” The result was GraderMate.
Designed to fit excavators and control the hydraulics, GraderMate enables these machines to easily create flat surfaces, slopes, trenches, and profiles with the press of a footswitch. The driver selects a type of surface using a touchscreen tablet, moves the bucket to the desired position, and then presses the footswitch. Peter said, “We tried to make GraderMate simple to use so that any operator can jump onto an excavator and use their existing skills. GraderMate augments all levels of operator expertise.” GraderMate is hands-free and uses a simple tablet interface designed for minimal interaction. It allows operators to maintain awareness of distances and depths on screen during operations, and they can always keep track of their machine and bucket level without leaving the cab.
GYRATING POINT OF DIFFERENCE
The jewel in the GraderMate crown is its gyroscopes, which Peter Kuskoff explains can measure the angle of the excavator’s arm and each joint on the arm. “The gyroscopes will monitor the angles a thousand times a second and then output to the hydraulics to move
the excavator,” says Peter Kuskoff. “It just makes corrections the whole way along and so fast that it helps produce a smooth surface.” The use of high-quality componentry to ensure endurance and reliability of GraderMate was central to the system’s unique design. The experience of the Kuskoff family in the use of robotics enabled them to design and manufacture all circuitry and software in-house. Moreover, the hydraulic manifold, gyros and motion controller are encased in anodised billet aluminium, while the touchscreen tablet is held in a billet aluminium holder. Peter Kuskoff confirms the componentry was all manufactured by a local engineering company in Victor Harbor, South Australia. “We have an engineer locally that makes the casing used in GraderMate. We designed the circuit boards ourselves, positioned the components, and wrote the software. That’s all done by us.” TESTING THE GRADERMATE
The Kuskoffs encourage potential customers to demo GraderMate using their excavator.
Peter states, “We invite them to come down and try it out. That’s probably the best way because it’s hard to see how good GraderMate works from a video online. Until you try it yourself, you won’t know. We’ve got a lot of confidence in GraderMate, and we want people to try it.” TOP GRADE RESPONSE TO ROBOTICS DISRUPTION
The reaction from the GraderMate trialists has been highly positive. Peter Kuskoff confirms, "Everyone who's tried GraderMate tends to like it. Even the people who are a little bit suspicious of it tend to be smiling by the end of testing.
As for concerns about GraderMate taking jobs, Peter Kuskoff said this isn’t the point of the innovation. “Unlike other new automation technologies, the GraderMate won't replace headcounts,” affirms Peter Kuskoff. "Rather, GraderMate will allow newer people to use excavators.
“Also, the main thing is that GraderMate makes it easier for an experienced operator, while also enabling someone new to excavators to use them efficiently. This wouldn't have been possible before. Newer operators wouldn't be able to do a flat surface."
In addition to local civil construction contractors, interstate and overseas firms have asked about GraderMate. Illya Kuskoff said, “Once we started advertising in July 2021, we had a lot of inquiries including 90 plus people from interstate who wanted to look at the system. “However, because of COVID-19, no one could really travel for product demonstrations.”
PLANS FOR THE FUTURE
With GraderMate still in its infancy, the Kuskoffs have chosen to share the workload between themselves rather than take on employees just yet. Peter Kuskoff chuckles, "While Umi the Border Collie thinks she's the boss, GraderMate is a four-way partnership.” He continues, "A sales team is probably in the future. Now we're trying to automate things. We're setting up a lot of automation for production processes as well."
While the Kuskoffs have plans to take GraderMate international, Peter Kuskoff says, "We're trying to stay pretty local for now. We want to make sure everything's working extremely smoothly before we branch out too far.
"We're still at pretty early stages for GraderMate, so it's mainly just small operators in Adelaide that are using our system at the moment. Many of our bigger competitors are working in the mining industry. It's like hundreds of thousands of dollars for their systems. "By comparison, the cost of GraderMate is in the tens of thousands of dollars, so it's easier for a small operator to justify this expenditure and get their money back quicker.” He adds, “We want to bring technology to the smaller and larger operators in an affordable way, and make a tool that makes excavators able to do more things for more people.” Apart from its affordability, GraderMate can save a contractor a lot of time in rework. "Because you get it right the first time, and also just getting the depth right can save a contractor money later and they won't have to overuse material such as concrete."
Also, with the State Government committing to invest billions of dollars, the timing for the launch of GraderMate could not be better, Peter Kuskoff acknowledges. "South Australia is a good place to be launching GraderMate because you see excavators everywhere." WORKING WITH FAMILY
The Kuskoffs are a remarkable example of how a family that works together stays together. “We have different specialisations, so we’re able to do what we do well and hand off work to the other person who can do the other thing well,” Peter Kuskoff confirms. “There’s a bit of overlap and just enough that we can understand what the other team member is doing. “However, we don’t get in each other’s hair much because we do our own thing, but it all links together in the end and becomes something greater.” On the formula for operating a successful family business, Peter Kuskoff says, “Everyone has to be passionate about it. We want to see the end-product and people enjoying it and making people’s lives better.
