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Develon reaches new milestone in autonomous earthmoving

History has been made in Tuggen, in the canton of Schwyz in Switzerland. KIBAG, one of Switzerland’s leading companies in the building materials and construction sector, has become the first company in the world to put an autonomous Develon ‘Real-X’ crawler excavator – a joint development with Gravis Robotics – into practical use. It may have been surprising to onlookers to see executives from leading companies in Switzerland, France, Germany and South Korea travelling to Tuggen for the handover of a crawler excavator and to watch it digging. However, a closer look would have revealed that there was no operator in the cab and that the machine was not being operated by remote control.

Urs Helbling, CEO of AG für Baumaschinen Schmerikon (AGFBS), the Develon dealer in Switzerland, explained that this moment had been preceded by two years of preparatory work. The key players here are the AI-powered Real-X system on a Develon DX225LC-7X excavator and a company that is open to the use of new technologies. “Today is a special day for all of us. This is no ordinary machine handover, but a step into the future of construction,” says Christoph Duijts, CEO of KIBAG.

Founded in 1926, KIBAG is a family-run business, which employs more than 2000 people and operates primarily in three business areas: building materials, construction services and the environment and waste management. It operates 14 gravel pits, three quarries, 25 concrete plants and 17 construction companies specialising in road construction, civil engineering and specialist sectors. In addition, there are recycling and waste management companies as well as service providers in the leisure sector that form part of the business.

KIBAG CPO, Urs Kordeuter, explains that the company’s fleet comprises 2000 construction machines of all sizes. To ensure the fleet remains at the cutting edge of technology, 200 of these are replaced annually. In the interests of sustainability, the company is currently investing particularly in electric-powered equipment and is collaborating with various construction machinery manufacturers – though not with Develon until now. The reason this has now changed is that Develon is further ahead than other manufacturers in the field of autonomous machinery, according to Urs Kordeuter.

As a pioneer in autonomous machine technology, Develon, formerly known as Doosan Construction Equipment, unveiled its Concept-X system in 2019 and used this to showcase the unmanned construction site, where safety and efficiency are enhanced through the use of 5G networks, drone surveying and autonomous machine control. The aim – as with the Concept-X2 extension unveiled in 2023 – was to achieve full autonomy by 2030. At bauma 2025, Develon took the next step with Real-X, creating a new intelligent crawler excavator capable of autonomously carrying out trench excavation, earthworks and truck loading. Real-X is the result of an agreement between HD XiteSolution (HDX), the holding company of Develon, and Gravis Robotics AG. Founded in October 2022, Gravis Robotics is a spin-off from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH). The company’s core expertise lies in developing learning-based control systems as retrofit kits and software that transform machines into fully autonomous robots capable of performing complex tasks.

Dominic Jud, CTO and co-founder of Gravis Robotics, explained that the company has gained experience through the use of autonomous machines in pipeline construction. “We were able to build on that, yet every project presents new challenges – be it the depth of the trench or the ground conditions,” said Dominic Jud. Just how mature this technology has become was recently demonstrated for 900 dealers, customers and trade journalists at the Develon Demo Days in the Czech Republic in April. Many were fascinated by the precision offered by this autonomous excavator solution.

The new machine in Switzerland is being used on the site of a former KIBAG quarry, which is now being restored to its natural state. The backfilling has already been completed, terraces have been created, and a road is also planned for the site in the future. Whilst the operation of autonomous construction machinery in public spaces is not yet clearly regulated, the machine can be operated autonomously on KIBAG’s private land, supervised by a technical supervisor.

Site Manager, Gabriel Hasler, has tasked the new Develon DX225LC-7X excavator with digging a trench 300 metres long, six metres wide and three metres deep. This is to be filled mainly with rocky material to prevent the foot of the hill from slipping. “We are replacing poor-quality material with significantly better material,” explained Gabriel Hasler. “The machine is doing an exceptional job,” he said, much to the delight of Panyoung Kim and Gye-Bong Jang, Senior Vice President and Head of Robotics AI at HD XiteSolution, respectively, who watched the operation with pride. All parties involved particularly emphasise how smooth and trusting the collaboration has been at every stage of the project.

“The idea for this project was conceived in 2024 based on a prototype from Develon,” Urs Helbling, CEO of AGFBS, added. “We then made the necessary contacts at bauma 2025, and in the summer of 2025, KIBAG decided to use the DX225LC-7X in this configuration,” he continued. It is precisely the shortage of skilled workers that makes a machine promising a 30% improvement in performance for trench excavation, earthworks and truck loading, along with a profitability of 100% or more, an attractive investment. Not to be overlooked here is the Gravis rack, which is so simply designed that site teams can quickly learn how to operate it.

“We will continue to enhance safety and efficiency on construction sites with our innovations,” said Gilles Bendaoud, Vice President Key Accounts/Remarketing Europe at Develon, noting that, in addition to Real-X, the company has also developed E-Stop and the transparent wheel loader bucket to increase site safety. “Even though there are still a few legal hurdles to overcome, we have taken another significant step towards the vision of the autonomous construction site today,” said Martin Gering, Key Account Manager GSA & EE at Develon, at the conclusion of the event marking the symbolic handover of the DX225LC-7X to KIBAG.

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