Civ Robotics has launched a new AI-powered material distribution system for the solar industry. CivNav speeds up solar construction by streamlining logistics, efficient pile and pallet placement, and advanced planning and workflow segmentation.
“We’re seeing really exciting tech entering the industry to solve long-standing inefficiencies,” said Tom Yeshurun, CEO and co-founder of Civ Robotics. “The most important element for us is to keep it simple and approachable, so everyone on the worksite can benefit from new developments, no matter their experience level. As we continue to build new robotics systems, we ensure innovation and user experience always go hand in hand.”
To use the CivNav system, the operator mounts the sensor box on their machine of choice and hops in with the CivNav tablet device in hand. CivNav works with existing equipment; it’s compatible with any skid steer or tele-handler, and has already been installed on Bobcat, Takeuchi, Caterpillar and John Deere machines in the field. Once mounted, CivNav guides the operator where to distribute the piles, solar modules and more. The intuitive interface enables precise placement with up to 5-cm accuracy, ensuring every plan is executed precisely.
When users combine this precise placement with GPS-enabled pile drivers, teams can skip surveying layout altogether. As the use of these GPS-enabled pile drivers increases and solar projects grow in scale, the need to cut out steps like construction staking becomes even more vital. This is another key step toward automation on the jobsite, helping to bridge the labor gap.
Measuring and tracking worksite performance can be difficult, so CivNav’s AI analytics automatically generates daily reports based on real-time data collected during operation. Offering detailed insights into productivity, output, hours, distance traveled and more, managers can better find bottlenecks and continuously optimize workflows as projects progress. This sort of information is critical for better estimating and also driving decision-making on measuring the success of changes.
The CivNav works in tandem with the company’s CivDot+ robots, providing a complete autonomous solution for EPCs with or without GPS on pile drivers.
“Civ Robotics has helped us to layout over 300,000 point locations on three different projects with CivDots,” said Jason Field, project executive of BOLDT. “Once they shared with us the development of CivNav which eliminates the need of physical point layout for pile distribution, we knew we had to try it out. The field team was sold after a week of usage, they asked about using it for other tasks on other machines.”
CivNav is currently available for rent in beta.
