Construction automation company Xpanner has unveiled the X1 Piling R6, a fully automated pile driving system for utility-scale solar and battery energy storage (BESS) sites.
X1 pairs Xpanner’s automation stack with the Everstar R6 crawler base machine. Operators upload the pile plan, walk the machine to the row and press one button. X1 then travels to each pile, aligns, hammers and holds the pile plumb while the operator supervises from a remote controller.
Conventional pile driving relies on a two-person crew plus separate survey, marking and prep work. X1 folds those steps into one automated cycle. The machine navigates to each pile position using high-precision GNSS antennas and receivers, precision sensors and an Xpanner-developed automation controller, the system automates pile positioning and driving to the required location and elevation — all at the push of a button. One operator runs the machine, and nobody stands next to the mast.
The X1 automation stack is carried over from Xpanner’s proven PD10 platform. Xpanner’s automation has been deployed on more than 67 U.S. jobsites with more than 10 of the country’s top EPCs. On the R6, X1 delivers a 45% faster cycle time than the prior generation.
“Solar and BESS builders are racing to bring new power online for the grid and for AI data centers, and they can’t find enough skilled crews to keep up,” said Henri Lee, co-founder & CEO of Xpanner. “X1 lets one operator drive every pile plumb with a single touch, keeps people away from the mast, and logs each pile as it goes in.
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