Image: Luminous RoboticsLUMILuminousTracked robot that picks utility-scale PV modules and places them onto tracker racking4 deployments · 2 countries
Image: XpannerX1 Kit
Excavator kit that picks solar panels from the box and places them with vacuum handling
- 6
- Deployments
- 3
- Companies that ran it
How it works on your site
The X1 Kit is a subscription retrofit from Xpanner that adds GNSS-guided automation to a contractor's own machines: a pile driver for X1 Piling, an excavator for X1 Panel Lift, and a compact track loader or skid steer for X1 Shake-Out. On piling the kit moves the machine to each pile location and drives the pile; per Xpanner, Panel Lift picks PV modules from the box and places them while two bolters fasten by hand, and Shake-Out guides a human driver to pile drop points. A Black & Veatch engineer told ENR that the operator works off the machine at a remote kiosk, hooks up each pile and presses a button, and the retrofitted Vermeer PD10 travels to that pile's X/Y/Z coordinate, elevation included. The kit is shipping and launched with piling in August 2025; its field evidence is led by solar piling for Black & Veatch, and Panel Lift launched in July 2026.
Module Placement onto Racking
Field outcomes
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Image: Xpanner
X1 Kit
Qcells
Who has run it
6 deployments · 3 companies · 1 country
Will it work on your site
- Control Interface
- Operator works from outside the cabKiosk for piling, remote controller for Panel Lift
- Fleet Management
- Xpanner Connect dashboardPlan vs as-built, production and machine status
- Pile Verticality Tolerance
- Not published by any source
- Shake-Out Target Tolerance
- Configurable distance and angleShake-Out guidance, vendor-stated
- Panel Mass
- About 30 kg per panelManual-lift context, not a machine rating
As the maker states it.
Want more information?
Other robots for utility-scale solar installation
- Image: Luminous RoboticsLUMILuminousTracked robot that picks utility-scale PV modules and places them onto tracker racking4 deployments · 2 countries
Image: GrittGrittGrittRetrofit for construction equipment that picks solar modules and places them on tracker racking3 deployments · 1 country
Image: CivRoboticsCivNavCiv RoboticsGPS guidance box for a skid steer that leads the operator to each solar pile, pallet and module drop2 deployments
Image: Cosmic RoboticsCosmic-1ACosmic RoboticsBattery-electric robot that lifts solar modules and places them on tracker racking at utility-scale PV sites1 deployment · 1 country
Image: BotCrewGravionBotCrewUtility robot vehicle that pulls cable, carries panels and mows on utility-scale solar sites1 deployment
Image: Charge RoboticsSunriseCharge RoboticsPortable on-site factory that assembles 40-foot solar bays for an autonomous vehicle to place1 deployment
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