Built Robotics RPD 35
Autonomous pile driver built on a Caterpillar 335 excavator with a Rammer vibratory hammer, which drives the steel piles of solar trackers on utility-scale PV plants. Built Robotics unveiled it in March 2023; per the maker it combines surveying, pile distribution, pile driving and as-built records, and it always works paired with the RPS 25 robotic pile stabilizer. In the Goorambat East pilot (Australia) it installed 1,723 piles between February and April 2025 but, according to the contractor, at a slower rate than a conventional crew.
- Year
- 2023
- Origin
- United States
- Autonomy
- L3 · Conditional autonomy
- Dataset review
- 2026-11 · Methodology & evidence levels
What it does, and on what evidence
Five mandatory fields on every sheet. A product page proves neither commercial availability nor full autonomy: here we separate what has been documented from what is announced.
- 1 · Task
- Drive, in the planned order, the steel H-piles that support the tracker structures of a solar plant, from a pile plan with the GPS coordinates of each pile top, and document each installed pile.
- 2 · Autonomy by task
Does on its own
Inside a geofenced work zone it positions itself with RTK GPS, picks the right pile type from its baskets, places it in the chute and drives it by vibration; it flags piles that hit refusal and moves on, and it produces as-built drawings. The RPS 25, a second machine on a Caterpillar 325 with RTK GPS and LiDAR, locates and holds each pile to meet plumbness, twist and height. If its AI cameras detect a person nearby, it stops autonomous operation.
A person steps in
People load piles into baskets with a mini excavator and the baskets onto the machine with a telehandler before each run; they set up the geofence and physical barrier, and refusal criteria are calibrated to the ground. Operators trained by Built (or Built employees) supervise it remotely with the Everest and Guardian software, can control it remotely and have wireless emergency stops. In the 2025 pilot, manual pile loading was the main human task, every pile position was surveyed by hand as a site requirement and there was downtime for maintenance.[Built Robotics][Built Robotics, 2026][ARENA, 2025][RenewEconomy, 2025]
- 3 · Strongest evidence
Pilot2025-04
5 MW pilot at ENGIE's Goorambat East solar farm (Victoria, Australia), with Bouygues Construction Australia and Equans as contractors and ARENA support: the first-generation system installed 1,723 piles between 24 February and 1 April 2025 with zero safety incidents, and according to the manual measurements Built reports the typical deviations stayed within the minimum required tolerances. Bouygues' project director reported 120 piles a day versus over 250 with the traditional method. The maker advertises 1–3 min cycles per pile (2–5 min manually), “up to 5×” faster and, in 2023, over 300 piles a day with a two-person crew, figures not demonstrated in that pilot.[ARENA, 2025][RenewEconomy, 2025][Built Robotics][The Robot Report, 2023]
- 4 · Access
- Commercial product
Offered as robot-as-a-service (RaaS), priced per pile for each project (not published) and with minimum deployment lengths; United States and Australia only. The customer provides the mini excavator and telehandler for loading.
- 5 · Lifecycle
- Current generation
Built calls the 2025 pilot system “Gen 1” and announced a second generation (concept prototype) that will carry standard pile bundles. In October 2026 ARENA committed up to A$13.3 million for Built Robotics Australia to manufacture and deploy 12 robotic piling systems in Brisbane.
Spec sheet
Manufacturer maxima under declared conditions; not simultaneous. The test condition is shown under each value.
- Weight
- 65.32 t
- fully loaded operating weight (144,000 lb) on a Caterpillar 335 base excavator; ground pressure of 11 psi (about 76 kPa)
- Payload
- 18,144 kg
- maximum payload of the pile sleds (40,000 lb), up to 224 piles depending on type. The 2026 spec sheet supports 9 to 20 ft piles up to 1,000 lb (W6, W8 and W10 sections); the web page gives 10–19 ft, 600 lb and W6×7 to W8×28
- Operating time
- Not published
Primary source quality: Manufacturer / operator
Backed by:[Built Robotics, 2026][Built Robotics]
Taxonomy profile
Where the platform sits on the four axes of the reference framework.
Autonomy
Conditional autonomy- L0
- L1
- L2
- L3
- L4
- L5
Makes local decisions on unexpected events; needs occasional remote supervision.
Coordination
Coordinated- Standalone
- Coordinated
- Collaborative swarm
Shares state and telemetry through a base station or central server.
Control
primary: Supervised mission- FPV
- Teleop
- Supervised
- BVLOS
- RL/VLA
supported: Teleoperation · Supervised mission
Perception
3 sensing modalities- GNSS / RTK
- IMU
- RGB cameras
Operating environments
- Construction site
Sectors
- Construction
- Energy
Ideal business case
Pile driving on utility-scale solar farms
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