ConstructionSelf-driving construction machines

RPD 35 and Exosystem

Name: RPD 35 and Exosystem
Brand: Built Robotics

Built Robotics adds sensors and software to ordinary excavators so they can work on their own. Its main product now, the RPD 35, drives the steel posts that hold up solar panels on large solar farms. pv magazine USA, 27 Apr 2023

Stage 4 of 5

Paying customers

Which rule placed it

Evidence: Company-reported only
Human help: Not disclosed
Last milestone: Sept 2025

01Can I get it?

Yes, in places

Where it works today: Used on US solar farm projects; solar builder Blattner agreed to use dozens of the robots. Sumitomo Corporation of Americas, VISIONS magazine, Sept 2025
Published price: No published price in our sources.
Human help: The company says the RPD 35 works with a crew of two people. pv magazine USA, 27 Apr 2023

02Track record

What has actually happened

Every milestone is dated and links to the page it comes from. Lines marked company-reported rest on the maker's own word.

Sept 2025
Paying customers · sets the stage
Solar construction company Blattner agreed to use dozens of Built Robotics' machines on US solar projects over three years, for pile driving, surveying, drilling and trenching.
Sumitomo Corporation of Americas, VISIONS magazine, Sept 2025Company-reported
27 April 2023
Unveiled
Built Robotics launched the RPD 35, a self-driving machine that drives solar-panel posts into the ground. The company said it could install about 300 posts a day with two workers.
pv magazine USA, 27 Apr 2023Company-reported
April 2022
Funding
Built Robotics raised $64 million, bringing its total to $112 million. Most of its users were renewable-energy companies.
The Washington Post, 30 Jan 2023Company-reported
19 Sept 2019
Funding
Built Robotics raised $33 million, bringing its total to $48 million. Its machines were working on clean-energy projects in Colorado, Kansas, Missouri and elsewhere.
VentureBeat, 19 Sept 2019Company-reported
20 Oct 2017
Unveiled
Built Robotics showed its system for turning existing excavators into self-driving machines, and raised $15 million.
The Robot Report, 20 Oct 2017Company-reported

03Safety and incidents

What has gone wrong

No crashes, recalls or regulator reports in our sources. That is not proof none happened; we add them when a regulator or trusted outlet reports one.

How we placed it

The rule, not an opinion

Stages are worked out by published rules from the dated milestones above. We never rate robots, and no maker can pay to change a stage.

5
Regulator-cleared or mass market
A regulator has cleared it where approval applies: FDA clearance or approval for a medical robot, a permit to run with no one aboard for a self-driving vehicle, or an FAA approval for routine drone flights. Or: Widely sold: sales in the hundreds of thousands, or a product category you can buy in ordinary shops.
4
Paying customersThis robot
Delivered to customers who pay for it, beyond a trial, or a paid service the public can use.
Placed by: Solar construction company Blattner agreed to use dozens of Built Robotics' machines on US solar projects over three years, for pile driving, surveying, drilling and trenching (Sept 2025).
3
Pilot
Working with a named customer in a real setting, as a trial.
2
Pre-orders
Orders, reservations or deposits taken, with nothing delivered yet.
1
Demo only
Shown in videos, staged events or a factory, with no units working for customers.

What we couldn't confirm. Sumitomo, which is an investor in Built Robotics, is the source for the Blattner deal, so it is treated as company-reported. Could not confirm the exact date of the Blattner agreement or any 2026 news; web search ran out before this card was finished. Built said in April 2023 that the first RPD 35s would be deployed in Q4 2023; we could not confirm when that happened.

Sources

Cite this page

Robotics Verdict. “RPD 35 and Exosystem (Built Robotics): how far has it got?” roboticsverdict.com/robots/built-robotics. Checked 19 October 2026.