HD Hyundai partners with robotics and building materials giant on autonomous machinery

HDX will work with Gravis Robotics and Holcim in a partnership designed to develop and commercialise autonomous equipment in quarrying and materials handling operations.

The project involves using Develon machines across Holcim’s operations, with a particular focus on:

• Truck loading of blasted rock for efficient material transports
• Feeding hoppers of mobile crushers and screeners with extracted materials
• Confined material handling at asphalt and aggregate plants
• Stockyard management, optimising material flow and storage

Holcim aims to increase productivity through increased output and consistency, as well as by increasing safety by reducing the number of people on site. It also aims to optimise machine selection from a cost and performance perspective for the task.

Gravis Robotics, in cooperation with HDX, will develop autonomous technology for construction equipment, and will work with Holcim to facilitate the deployment of the technology across its operations.

The partnership’s ultimate aim is to scale and integrate the autonomous technology into Holcom’s global operations at volume.

Develon has been developing autonomous machines for the past several years, starting with the Concept-X technology first seen globally in 2019. It then showcased its remote control/autonomous cableless construction equipment solution at ConExpo in Las Vegas, USA, in 2023.

At Bauma in Munich, Germany this year it has showcased its Real X technology, which allows Develon crawler excavators to carry out a full suite of autonomous tasks, including trenching, bulk earthworks, and truck-loading. Real X also allows the same excavator to be operated in autonomous, remote control or normal joystick operation mode.