Built Robotics Exosystem

The Exosystem is an aftermarket autonomy upgrade for excavators, brought to market by Built Robotics in 2021 after development that began in 2018. It does not replace the machine: an all-weather enclosure mounts on the tail of a mid-size excavator from any leading manufacturer, and the excavator digs trenches on its own. Inside the enclosure sits a liquid-cooled computer with a 64-core Intel Xeon and dual NVIDIA GPUs, feeding on 360-degree AI smart cameras, sub-centimetre RTK GPS, inertial units and a vertical laser rangefinder. The detection model was trained on over a million images of people near working machines. Built rates trenching output at 130 to 180 feet per hour with digging accuracy of a tenth of a foot on grades up to 10 percent, and claims equipment utilisation above 80 percent of working hours against 40 to 50 percent under manual operation. The design decision that matters most is reversibility. Installation takes less than a working day, adds nothing that exceeds height limits for interstate transport, leaves manual operation intact and can be detached. A contractor therefore risks no machine and no fleet turnover to try autonomy, which is the same argument newer entrants now make and the reason retrofit, rather than purpose-built robots, has become the dominant approach in construction autonomy. Safety is layered rather than singular: geofencing, AI cameras, wireless emergency stops and Built's Guardian remote monitoring, with the Everest cloud console watching and operating machines from anywhere. What the Exosystem does not do is decide what to build. It executes a survey and a dig plan; a person still designs the trench, and remote staff still watch the feed.

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