Civil engineering contractor Taylor Woodrow has completed a trial of what it claims is the first autonomous excavator in the UK.
The test took place at the Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC) in Sheffield, where the driverless machine passed a series of exercises to evaluate its performance.
The artificial intelligence-powered excavator, SV100-7, was developed by a collaboration between Gravis Robotics, Yanmar Construction Equipment, AMRC and Taylor Woodrow.
It can excavate to various depths in differing ground conditions, provide real-time light detection and ranging (Lidar) capture of the excavation, and allow for emergency safe stops and autonomous manoeuvring.
Taylor Woodrow plans to use SV100-7 in real-life conditions at its Manchester Airport project.
Phil Skegg, managing director of Taylor Woodrow, said: “Over the last 10 years our industry safety record has not improved, and our productivity has declined. As an industry, around 20% of the cost of what we build can be attributed to not getting it right the first time.
“We believe that increasing the mechanisation and automation of the tasks we undertake on site will help address these problems, removing people from danger, being more productive and improving quality of workmanship. Computer-controlled machines could be the way forward and as an industry leader we want to be an early adopter and trial what is available.”
