Kawasaki Develops "Autonomous Excavators"; Achieved "Autonomous Operation" for Trench Excavation at Construction and Civil Engineering Sites
Tokyo — Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Ltd. announced that it has developed the "Autonomous Excavation System for Excavators" and achieved autonomous trench excavation using excavators. This enables the "autonomization" of trench excavation work by excavators, which is currently performed by operators at construction and civil engineering sites. This system, using a controller mounted on the excavator, plans efficient excavation movements based on input 3D design data and terrain sensing results from LiDAR* 1 . It autonomously performs excavation and dump truck loading while determining the appropriate excavation volume. In verification testing conducted by our company, we confirmed that the system can autonomously excavate a trench measuring 2m in width, 0.6m in depth, and 10m in length. Additionally, we verified that the system can autonomously perform other operations such as leveling the trench floor and compaction work, in addition to excavation w...