On April 19, the 2025 Beijing Yizhuang Humanoid Robot Half Marathon kicked off with 20 humanoid robots competing. It was expected that the intelligent humanoid robots would demonstrate extraordinary capabilities in this race, but reality proved deeply disappointing. Most of the robots experienced more than one "accident," with some even losing their heads while running—the "intelligent" robots did not seem so "intelligent" after all.

Unlike the still-toddling intelligent robots, the construction machinery industry has long strode into the era of intelligent unmanned operations. However, because the construction machinery industry has always maintained a low-key and pragmatic style, the general public knows little about it. In fact, unmanned driving equipment in the construction machinery industry has not only achieved clustered industrial operations, but major enterprises have also made remarkable achievements in the research and development of related equipment. Below, let us take an in-depth look at how unmanned driving products in the construction machinery industry are developing.

XCMG

Over the past two years, XCMG has continued to deepen its efforts in the field of intelligent unmanned mining vehicles, with remarkable results.

In 2023, XCMG Group fully launched the chairman's "No. 1 Project" of intelligent transformation, digital transformation, and networked connectivity, and built a powerful big data platform based on Huawei's hybrid cloud foundation.

In October 2024, XCMG and Huawei officially launched their cooperation on autonomous driving in mines. The two parties announced that they would build a domestically leading "cloud-network-vehicle" collaborative unmanned mining solution and jointly explore the intelligent development of the mining industry.

In February 2025, XCMG's unmanned truck made a stunning debut at the Yimin Open-Pit Mine of China Huaneng in Inner Mongolia at -20°C, achieving 24-hour uninterrupted operation. The vehicle abandoned the traditional cab and replaced it with a giant battery and electrical module. Its unmanned driving technology has an error range of centimeters, enabling safe, efficient, and reliable production operations under complex working conditions in the mining area.

Beyond mining areas, XCMG's unmanned products have also achieved outstanding results in the road construction sector.

In 2020, XCMG successfully applied the world's largest-scale unmanned cluster construction in the Beijing-Xiong'an Expressway project.

In 2023, XCMG's XC968-EV unmanned pure electric loader assisted in the construction of Section A1 of the Zhangjinggao Yangtze River Bridge project.

In April 2024, XCMG for the first time used an unmanned paving plus BeiDou high-precision positioning intelligent system to complete the paving of the first test section of the middle surface course of the entire line on the Yan Dabie Mountains Expressway. To date, XCMG's digital intelligent construction technology has been successfully implemented in 63 projects, 52 of which are expressway projects, with a total construction mileage of 2,950 km. It is also the first in China to successfully apply unmanned construction to tunnel projects.

In the future, XCMG will continue to be committed to technological innovation and green development, providing global customers with smarter, more efficient, and more sustainable solutions. It will set a new benchmark for the industry and help global transportation construction achieve leapfrog development.

Zoomlion

Zoomlion also performs outstandingly in the field of unmanned equipment manufacturing.

At bauma China 2024, Zoomlion's unmanned tower crane and intelligent construction hoist without dedicated operators instantly became the focus of attention upon exhibition.

The unmanned tower crane operates without the need for a tower crane operator. At the starting and ending positions, the rigger simply presses the remote control to call the hook with one button, and the entire lifting process is fully automated, efficient, and convenient. Through multi-line LiDAR and AI intelligent algorithms, it can perceive the construction site environment in real time, dynamically generate 3D models, and automatically plan the optimal path, avoiding collisions and ensuring lifting safety.

The intelligent construction hoist without dedicated operators is equally impressive. It is extremely easy to operate—just press the corresponding button to achieve a series of functions such as automatic elevator calling, automatic door opening, and automatic leveling. It is also equipped with multiple intelligent systems including an intelligent management system, multi-operation mode system, landing door system, and overload management.

At bauma 2025 in Munich, Germany, the smart mine overall solution displayed by Zoomlion also attracted much attention. Centered on "unmanned mining truck driving and remote control," the solution provides a complete set of integrated software and hardware solutions covering excavator-truck coordination, unmanned driving, digital management, and automated safety monitoring, enabling unmanned operations throughout the entire process of mining, excavation, transportation, and unloading.

In addition, leveraging its accumulated advantages in the construction machinery field, Zoomlion continues to empower agricultural machinery to achieve unmanned driving and precision operations, greatly reducing the labor intensity and burden on new-generation farmers. At present, Zoomlion has launched industry-first new-generation advanced products such as AI intelligent agricultural machinery, the CL2404 unmanned tractor, the CA504ET pure electric tractor, the CB503 wheel-track composite hybrid chassis, and the TE100-DH hybrid harvester.

LiuGong

As LiuGong's flagship product, the loader—and specifically its unmanned electric loader—is at the industry's leading level in research and development.

In the national strategic project construction of Xiong'an New Area, LiuGong's unmanned electric loader demonstrated its prowess at the mixing station. It not only possesses efficient loading capacity but can also construct point cloud maps through LiDAR to achieve centimeter-level precise positioning both indoors and outdoors. This broke the traditional concrete production model and successfully built a green, modular, and unmanned concrete production plant, bringing a revolutionary change to concrete production.

In addition to the unmanned electric loader, LiuGong also offers a series of high-end intelligent products such as unmanned remote-controlled skid-steer loaders, unmanned excavators, unmanned road rollers, and unmanned methanol range-extended electric dump trucks.

In April 2024, the departure ceremony for LiuGong's first batch of unmanned methanol range-extended electric dump trucks was held at LiuGong's Changzhou R&D and Manufacturing Base, marking another breakthrough by LiuGong in the field of unmanned driving technology.

In October 2024, in the construction of the "world-class project" Lawa Hydropower Station, LiuGong's unmanned road roller participated in the construction of the dam's main line filling surface and rolling surface, facilitating the smooth progress of the project.

At present, LiuGong's electric equipment has been widely used in extreme working conditions such as tunnels and mines, and has been successfully sold to overseas markets, forming complete mining construction solutions for LiuGong electric equipment including electric loaders, excavators, and mining trucks. This fully demonstrates the hard-core strength of Chinese brands in the fields of new energy and new technologies.

Sany Heavy Industry

As early as 2016, five unmanned vibratory rollers converted from Sany road rollers were officially put into use in the construction of the high dam of the Changheba Hydropower Station on the Dadu River, achieving China's first batch of high-performance unmanned vibratory roller cluster operations.

In December 2019, Sany Heavy Industry's unmanned paver and unmanned road roller were applied in the Shanghai Zhujian Road reconstruction project—the domestic debut of the first set of unmanned intelligent asphalt road paving and compaction equipment.

In August 2023, Sany's "black technology" unmanned paving and compaction fleet set out for Nanjing to assist in the S246 Ninglang Line Lishui Section of Nanjing's ordinary national and provincial highway maintenance and major/medium repair project.

In recent years, Sany Heavy Industry has continued to increase investment in the field of unmanned driving and has made comprehensive arrangements. It has successively launched multiple products such as unmanned pure electric tractors, paving and compaction machines, and pure electric unmanned wide-body trucks, which are widely used in various scenarios such as ports, road surfaces, and mining areas, realizing unmanned, multi-scenario, and all-condition operations of construction machinery.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Unmanned Driving

At present, the unmanned era has already arrived. Whether from the perspective of cost, efficiency, or safety, unmanned driving is an important development direction for the construction machinery industry to enhance its competitiveness. The entry of the construction machinery industry into the era of fully automated construction has become an irreversible trend in the industry.

In the field of mining, equipment such as unmanned excavators and unmanned mining trucks can operate efficiently under harsh geological conditions and complex working environments, greatly reducing the risk of personnel exposure to dangerous environments and improving production safety and efficiency. In the field of building construction, equipment such as unmanned tower cranes and unmanned cranes can perform precise operations, improving construction quality and progress. In bridge, railway, and expressway construction, unmanned loaders, unmanned road rollers, and unmanned pavers can operate in clusters professionally, greatly improving construction efficiency.

Coupled with the gradual disappearance of China's demographic dividend, the problem of human resource shortage is becoming increasingly prominent. It can be said that the development of unmanned and intelligent construction machinery is not only a practical move to comply with low-carbon environmental requirements and demographic structural changes, but also an inevitable choice to meet the needs of high-intensity and high-risk operation scenarios.

However, technological development is a double-edged sword. While the intelligent and unmanned development of construction machinery brings many advantages, it has also raised concerns among operators about unemployment. In fact, operators need not be overly anxious. We should understand that unmanned driving technology is merely a tool, not a solution to replace humans. It can help people complete certain tasks more efficiently, but it cannot fully replace human wisdom and creativity. We should consider how to leverage the advantages of artificial intelligence to improve work efficiency and quality of life.

In addition, the large-scale application of unmanned driving technology in the construction machinery industry still faces many bottlenecks. These include the many limitations of satellite navigation technology, which can only be used in specific areas and cannot be deployed in remote mountainous areas, tunnels, mines, and other places; the excessively high cost of unmanned transformation, which requires a long time to see benefits and is simply unaffordable for small and medium-sized enterprises; the lack of effective government incentive measures; and the severe shortage of professional talent. It is evident that China's unmanned construction machinery still has a long way to go before large-scale application.

At present, the development of unmanned equipment in construction machinery has undoubtedly opened a door to the future for us, showing us infinite possibilities. With the continuous development and integration of technologies such as artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things, and big data, unmanned development has become an inevitable trend. A new wave of opportunity in construction machinery is already visible. Who will come out on top in the unmanned field? Let us wait and see.