Budimex Tests Autonomous Rollers as Poland's Labor Shortage Bites

A labor gap and a regulatory hurdle

The scale of the staffing problem emerged during debates at the European Economic Congress. An expert from Cracow University of Technology said that this year, for the first time, no road engineering specialization was opened for full-time students, and only eight people study it part-time. The issue is also due to be discussed at the upcoming Polish Construction Congress in Warsaw.

Jakub Jedliński, head of Budimex's innovation office, said the firm wants to be the first player in Europe to bring such machines onto building sites. Commercial use in the EU, however, requires a declaration of conformity with EU standards, which the manufacturer or importer must file. Automation is meant to ease the lack of available operators willing to relocate between regions. One operator is expected to supervise several machines, typically four to six on markets outside the EU.

Part of a wider trend

Abroad, autonomy is already moving onto sites. Swiss firm Kibag began testing an autonomous excavator, supplied by Develon with control software from ETH Zurich spin-off Gravis Robotics, at a gravel pit in Tuggen in January, and trialed a Liebherr wheel loader in July. In August, US company Bedrock Robotics moved fully autonomous excavators from demonstrations into regular commercial fleets.

Britain's McLaren Construction has signed a deal with FieldAI to deploy four-legged robots that capture 360-degree imagery, build point clouds and check progress, quality and compliance. Experts expect humanoid robots handling documentation within five to ten years, and say Poland, so far largely focused on BIM, will have to automate further.