Construction automation company Xpanner announced the commercial launch of the X1 Piling R6, a fully automated pile driving machine engineered to accelerate civil installation timelines on utility-scale solar and battery energy storage system construction sites.
The system pairs Xpanner’s field-proven automation hardware and software stack with an Everstar R6 crawler base machine to automate pile positioning, travel, alignment, hammering, and depth control in a single execution cycle.
Conventional pile driving typically requires a two-person crew operating alongside separate surveying, marking, and site preparation teams. The X1 folds those manual steps into an automated workflow executed via remote control. Operators upload a pile schedule and coordinate file, guide the machine to the start of a row, and initiate operation with a single command.
High-precision dual-antenna GNSS receivers with Real-Time Kinematic support deliver centimeter-level positioning and orientation accuracy. Controlled by an onboard industrial controller operating on a real-time operating system, the system automatically navigates the crawler to each target location, aligns the mast, and drives piles to specified elevation and plumb tolerances without requiring personnel near the mast.
The underlying stack builds on Xpanner’s PD10 platform, which has been deployed across more than 67 U.S. job sites by major engineering, procurement, and construction contractors. Integrated on the Everstar R6 carrier, the X1 achieves a 45% faster cycle time compared to the previous generation, according to the company.
Powered by a 130 horsepower engine operating at a maximum hydraulic pressure of 2,900 psi and a flow rate of 31.7 gallons per minute, the crawler features a high-frequency hydraulic hammer delivering up to 929 foot-pounds of impact energy. The hammer utilizes a 3.35-inch borer pole with three energy settings to adjust for varying soil resistance and geotechnical conditions.
To eliminate unnecessary machine movement on site, the carrier features fine-positioning capabilities. The guide rail slides 11.8 inches (300 mm) fore and aft, 19.7 inches (500 mm) laterally, and offers 180 degrees of upper-body rotation. The mast adjusts 10 degrees forward and backward, with a side tilt range from 7 degrees left to 64 degrees right, allowing operators to achieve target placement from a single setup position.
The system accommodates pile lengths up to 7.0 m with a maximum driving depth of 4.8 m. Because the hammer lowers near ground level and the guide rail plants vertically into the dirt during operation, the unit can drive piles flush to grade without adapters, handling standard tracker piles, short motor piles, and lower-profile BESS foundation piles on the same carrier chassis. Optional mast configurations support down-the-hole drilling, auger drilling with diameters ranging from 2.6 to 13.8 inches (66 to 350 mm), and ground screwing.
With an operating weight of 14,330 lb (6,500 kg), the carrier has compact transport dimensions of 3.7 m in length, 2.15 m in width, and 2.7 m in height. It is powered by a 130 hp (97 kW) engine and delivers a hammer impact energy of 929 ft·lb (1,260 J). The machine achieves a travel speed exceeding 1.6 mph (2.5 km/h) and can negotiate gradients of up to 20 degrees. Its tank capacities include 43.6 gallons of diesel fuel and 38.6 gallons of hydraulic oil.
“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 and 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.”
On-site machine interaction relies on a 10.1-inch, sunlight-readable touch display built to handle extreme job site conditions, weather, and heavy vibration. The system is designed to operate reliably across extreme temperatures ranging from -40°F to 185°F.
The hardware connects to Xpanner Connect, a web-based project management dashboard that logs spatial coordinates, driving depth, and plumb status for each driven pile in real time. The live site map eliminates manual end-of-day reporting, offering remote fleet visibility into machine state, cycle metrics, and site progress.
The X1 Piling R6 is commercially available starting October 26, 2026, through an Automation-as-a-Service subscription model that bundles the crawler chassis, automation hardware, cloud software, site validation, and direct on-site support.
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