Gravis RACK Autonomous Excavator Retrofit

Gravis Robotics is an autonomous earthmoving technology company with headquarters listed in Zurich, Switzerland, and offices in Austin, Texas and Oxford, United Kingdom. It spun out of ETH Zurich and develops autonomy for heavy construction machinery.

Gravis RACK is described as the brain and backbone of its autonomous excavators. It retrofits existing construction machines with sensors and a touchscreen control, so contractors can add autonomy to equipment they already own. The website lists armasuisse, Boskalis, Holcim, Morgan Sindall and Taylor Woodrow among its trusted-by customers.

• Gravis RACK: retrofit hardware with sensors and touchscreen control that turns existing excavators autonomous.
• Terrain-aware excavation: the system adapts digging to the terrain to raise throughput.
• Retrofit approach: works on existing construction machines rather than requiring new vehicles.
• Slate software: a software product listed alongside the hardware.
• Multi-brand compatibility: reported to work with dozens of construction brands.

Bulk excavation at infrastructure and expressway projects. Earthworks preparation in industrial parks. Quarry and mining loading operations with retrofit excavators.

The company claims throughput up to 30% higher through terrain-aware excavation. Retrofitting existing machines avoids buying new equipment. Autonomy supports safer, more predictable earthmoving with simple integration on the jobsite.

Construction faces a shortage of skilled operators and pressure to raise productivity, which drives interest in autonomous heavy equipment. Vietnam's infrastructure, industrial park and housing projects involve large earthmoving volumes that could benefit from retrofit autonomy.

Raised 200 million USD Series A in August 2026 from SoftBank and 23 million USD in November 2025. Won gold at the 2025 Construction Startup Challenge. ETH Zurich spin-out with offices in Zurich, Austin and Oxford.