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Robots have been investigated for automation of construction, maintenance, and inspection of civil works since the early 1980s. This paper describes the progress of robotics in civil engineering from the early 1980s to the mid‐1990s. It focuses on the environment and motivation for implementation of robotics, identifies key centers of development, identifies regional differences, and describes progress in key areas. It also traces the emergence and change of development strategies over time, it identifies practical achievements, and it identifies key developments for the future. It concludes that despite many false starts and setbacks, significant progress has been made, and significant changes are on the horizon.

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The paper deals with kinematically controlled excavation process performed by a commonly applied backhoe excavator. It is assumed that all three hydraulic actuators which are driving the arms of the machine may work simultaneously. This creates a unique relationship between -bucket's motion as a rigid body and the actuators action. After discussing kinematic relationship containing constraints arising from limited lenghts of actuators, the static constraints at each point of working space are presented.. They are defined by maximum possible forces in actuators and by the stability of the excavator. In the case of statics, relationship between two components of teeth force and three forces exerted by actuators are not unique. That fact causes a need for constructing a polygon of feasible forces at the dipper's teeth. The last part of the paper is devoted to the hydraulic flow circuit coupled with a processor. The main idea of the system consists in proper distribution of oil volume and assurance of apropriate pressure in all three actuators. Presented solution allows to dig the soil along assumed path.

There are found the answers to the scientific question whether it is possible to figure out the methodology to explore technology gaps looking through Operational Requirements (ORs) defined for military systems, to apply it to construction industry applications technology gaps exploration. In this paper were specified the (ORs) that enabled a preliminary analysis on Unmanned Ground Systems (UGSs): which kind of platforms might be developed and shared between the systems devoted to different military and construction industry applications. In this paper are presented technology gaps identified by comparing the ORs with the state of play of technologies that are currently available in the military and construction equipment applications. Then the challenges and measures are identified and associated to the gaps that should be taken in order to bridge each specific gap. There are identified technological and non-technological aspects that may hamper development of UGS solutions that fully achieve the ORs, and thus would need to be further studied and/or elaborated. As a next step actions are specified. They represent the research and development initiatives, steps or activities that should be done in order to be in the position of developing UGS solutions achieving the specified ORs and requirements of construction site. The actions need to be completed to bridge the technology gaps to make required new capabilities available. One of results of such a methodology are schedules based on the roadmap aimed to guide the development of the future UGS solutions towards the achievement of operational and construction site requirements.