The move follows successful trials of the Yanmar machine at the Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC) in Sheffield.

A dedicated demonstration site was set up so the contractor and its partners Gravis Robotics could put the intelligent machine through its paces.

The driverless digger successfully passed a series of exercises including autonomous excavation to various depths in differing ground conditions, real-time LiDAR capture of the excavation, emergency safe stop as well as autonomous manoeuvring.

The project was overseen and verified by experienced site managers, engineers and machine operators treating it as a real project and all the excavation tasks were taken from a real, upcoming scheme.

The SV100-7 machines will now go live at Taylor Woodrow’s project at Manchester Airport.

Phil Skegg, managing director of Taylor Woodrow said: “Over the last 10 years our industry safety record has not improved, and our productivity has declined. As an industry around 20% of the cost of what we build can be attributed to not getting it right first time.

“We believe that increasing the mechanisation and automation of the tasks we undertake on site will help address these problems, removing people from danger, being more productive and improving quality of workmanship.

“Computer controlled machines could be the way forward and as an industry leader we want to be an early adopter and trial what is available. This is an exciting first step made possible by our partnership with Gravis Robotics supported by Yanmar Construction Equipment and AMRC.”