Autonomous or humanoid? This question was the focus of the first ideas workshop on the future of construction machinery automation.

On June 26, 2025, the 7th network meeting of the ZIM innovation network AutoRobXL took place at a particularly suitable location: in the test hall of the Chair of Construction Machinery at TU Dresden. 🏗️
🔍 The highlights:
– Three ongoing ZIM projects presented exciting interim results for the first time.
– Three new project ideas were presented – one of which is already ready for application.
– With the Ideas Workshop, we are launching a new format for trend analysis and idea development for future R&D projects.
💡 To kick things off, we discussed the provocative question:
👉 “Do we really want to make construction machinery autonomous – or will we simply place humanoid robots on existing machines in the future?”
A question that is more than just an abstract approach. It opens up the view of:
– system innovation vs. system integration
– costs vs. complexity
– platform change vs. adaptation of existing technology
Both have potential – and both need research, courage and support.
📸 At the end, there was a joint family photo in the test hall – a symbol of the strong community and the will to create in the network. We look forward to the next stages with you!