An autonomous Develon excavator has been put to work on a live construction site for the first time, marking a major step towards the driverless jobsite of the future.
KIBAG, one of Switzerland’s leading building materials and construction companies, has become the first firm in the world to use a Develon “Real-X” crawler excavator in practical operations.
The handover took place in Tuggen, in the canton of Schwyz, Switzerland, where executives from Switzerland, France, Germany and South Korea gathered to watch the machine at work.
Unlike a conventional demonstration, the excavator was digging without an operator in the cab and was not being controlled remotely.
The Real-X system has been developed by Develon in partnership with Gravis Robotics, a Swiss robotics company spun out from ETH Zurich.
The autonomous technology has been fitted to a Develon DX225LC-7X crawler excavator.
Urs Helbling, CEO of AG für Baumaschinen Schmerikon, Develon’s dealer in Switzerland, said the milestone followed two years of preparation.
KIBAG Chief Executive Christoph Duijts said the handover represented more than the delivery of a new excavator.
“Today is a special day for all of us. This is no ordinary machine handover, but a step into the future of construction,” he said.
Founded in 1926, KIBAG is a family-run business employing more than 2,000 people.
The company operates across building materials, construction services, environmental operations and waste management.
Its activities include 14 gravel pits, three quarries, 25 concrete plants and 17 construction companies specialising in road construction, civil engineering and other sectors.
KIBAG also operates recycling and waste management businesses, along with leisure-related service providers.
Urs Kordeuter, KIBAG’s chief procurement officer, said the company’s fleet included around 2,000 construction machines of different sizes.
About 200 of these are replaced each year to keep the fleet up to date.
The company is currently investing in electric-powered equipment as part of its sustainability strategy and works with a range of construction machinery manufacturers.
Mr Kordeuter said KIBAG had now turned to Develon because the manufacturer was further ahead than others in autonomous machinery.
Develon, formerly known as Doosan Construction Equipment, first unveiled its Concept-X system in 2019.
The concept showcased an unmanned construction site using 5G networks, drone surveying and autonomous machine control to improve safety and efficiency.
The company followed this with Concept-X2 in 2023, with the wider aim of achieving full autonomy by 2030.
At bauma 2025, Develon introduced Real-X, an intelligent crawler excavator designed to carry out trench excavation, earthworks and truck loading autonomously.
Real-X is the result of an agreement between HD XiteSolution, the holding company of Develon, and Gravis Robotics.
Gravis Robotics develops learning-based control systems, retrofit kits and software that can turn machines into autonomous robots capable of carrying out complex tasks.
Dominic Jud, chief technology officer and co-founder of Gravis Robotics, said the company had already gained experience using 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,” he said.
The maturity of the technology was demonstrated at Develon Demo Days in the Czech Republic in April, where around 900 dealers, customers and trade journalists saw the autonomous excavator solution in action.
The machine now operating in Switzerland is being used at the site of a former KIBAG quarry, which is being restored to its natural state.
Backfilling has already been completed, terraces have been created and a road is planned for the site in future.
While the use of autonomous construction machinery in public spaces is not yet clearly regulated, the machine can operate autonomously on KIBAG’s private land under the supervision of a technical supervisor.
Site manager Gabriel Hasler has tasked the DX225LC-7X with digging a trench 300 metres long, six metres wide and three metres deep.
The trench will mainly be filled with rocky material to help prevent the foot of the hill from slipping.
“We are replacing poor-quality material with significantly better material,” Mr Hasler said.
He said early performance had been strong.
“The machine is doing an exceptional job,” he said.
The project has been watched closely by senior figures from HD XiteSolution, including Panyoung Kim and Gye-Bong Jang, Senior Vice President and Head of Robotics AI respectively.
Those involved in the project said collaboration between the companies had been smooth and built on trust throughout.
Mr Helbling said the idea for the project was first developed in 2024, based on a Develon prototype.
“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 said.
Develon said the technology could help address skills shortages in construction, while offering a 30% performance improvement in trench excavation, earthworks and truck loading.
The company also pointed to the design of the Gravis rack, which it said was simple enough for site teams to learn quickly.
“We will continue to enhance safety and efficiency on construction sites with our innovations,” said Gilles Bendaoud, Vice President Key Accounts and Remarketing Europe at Develon.
He said Real-X formed part of a wider safety and technology push by the company, alongside systems such as E-Stop and a transparent wheel loader bucket.
Martin Gering, Key Account Manager GSA and EE at Develon, said the handover marked another important move towards autonomous construction.
“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,” he said.