An autonomous excavator, the expansion of a self-driving bus trial and autonomous vehicles for airports, highways and city streets are among the latest projects to receive funding from the UK government’s CAM Pathfinder program.
Flannery – one of the UK’s largest plant hire businesses – and Gravis Robotics have secured funding from the first CAM Pathfinder Enable competition to develop a first-of-its-kind, automated excavator for the construction industry.
The UK construction industry is facing unprecedented demand over the next decade, with more than £530bn (US$717bn) earmarked for development. However, with an aging workforce and severe skills shortages looming, the organizations hope to demonstrate how embracing automation could help keep Britain building.
The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) estimates that Connected and Automated Mobility (CAM) could deliver a £66bn (US$89bn) annual economic boost to the UK by 2040. While CAM is most often associated with passenger cars, the construction sector is also a major beneficiary, with the potential to utilize automated off-highway machinery and logistics to improve worksite safety and efficiency.
The latest projects will help realize that opportunity by supporting innovation and commercial deployment across multiple UK regions, creating opportunities for high-value jobs, increasing productivity and strengthening domestic supply chains.
The construction project is one of nine successful projects recently announced, demonstrating how CAM technologies are being leveraged to drive opportunities across a wide range of sectors.
Connector (pictured above), a self-driving public bus service in Cambridge that has facilitated more than 2,000 journeys across 700 miles of public road since its launch in June 2025, is the second project to have received UK government grant funding from Enable. The trial is to be expanded to explore further benefits of deploying CAM on public roads and will run until June 2027. (Read more about the Cambridge Connector project in the April 2026 issue of ADAS & Autonomous Vehicle International magazine.)
A further seven technical demonstrator projects including autonomous airside vehicles for airports, winter gritters and city-ready passenger-carrying vehicles have also secured funding from the first CAM Pathfinder Demonstrate competition.
Minister for reindustrialization Blair McDougall said, “Britain’s autonomous vehicle sector is world-class, and with our Modern Industrial Strategy we’re bringing business and science together to support the innovators and businesses who are shaping the future of transportation. By backing these cutting-edge technologies with the funding to scale up, we’re helping this innovative sector to drive growth and jobs in every part of the UK, and I want to congratulate all the winners on their success and their role in reinforcing Britain’s leadership in this fast-growing industry.”
Mark Cracknell, program director at Zenzic, added, “Today’s announcement builds on all the fantastic progress made by CAM Pathfinder so far and puts the UK firmly in the driving seat when it comes to developing and deploying the CAM solutions of tomorrow. From construction to public roads and airside, these projects have the potential to transform UK businesses, create and safeguard hundreds of jobs and further strengthen the domestic supply chain.”
Demonstrate and Enable are part of the UK government’s CAM Pathfinder program, announced in the Industrial Strategy Advanced Manufacturing Sector Plan with the aim of growing the UK’s £3.7bn (US$5bn) CAM industry. CAM Pathfinder is delivered by the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade (BIST) in partnership with Zenzic and Innovate UK.
The projects funded by Enable include:
- Highly Automated Excavators for Autonomous Earthmoving – Led by Flannery and Gravis Robotics, the project will see the businesses trial a first-of-its-kind, fully autonomous earthmoving system installed across six excavators, enabling autonomous trenching, bulk excavation and truck loading.
- Commercialising Connector – Led by Cambridgeshire County Council, in partnership with Alexander Dennis, Anthrometric Solutions, Ticketer, Fusion Processing and Whippet Coaches, the Commercialising Connector project aims to progress the technology and vehicles utilized by the Connector project from Level 3 autonomy to Level 4.
The projects funded by Demonstrate include:
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Dynamic Braking for Autonomous Vehicles (D-BrAVe) – Led by Alcon Advanced Technologies with support from the University of Surrey and Evie Autonomous, the project aims to deliver a commercially scalable, fail‑operational brake‑by‑wire (BBW) system with anti‑lock braking (ABS) and provisional electronic stability control (ESC) specifically designed for no‑user‑in‑charge (NUIC) Level 4 autonomous vehicles.
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Airside Sentry – Led by Aurrigo in partnership with WMG (Warwick Manufacturing Group), with oversight and guidance from the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), the project team will design, build and test an autonomous vehicle in controlled environments before trialling it in real airport conditions at Teesside International Airport in the northeast of England.
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Accelerating the Development of L4 Autonomous Vehicles with Photorealistic Simulation at Scale – Led by Five AI, the project aims to strengthen UK autonomous vehicle competitiveness by advancing tools and methods that support the commercial deployment of Level 4 AVs.
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Automated Highway Maintenance Vehicles Phase 2 – A partnership between Ringway, Fusion Processing and Econ Engineering, the project will see the consortium develop and trial an automated impact protection vehicle (AIPV) and automated winter gritter (AGritter) equipped with automated driving, crash attenuation systems, specialist highway maintenance functionality and integrated spreading control systems.
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Driven by Sound+ – Led by Calyo, in partnership with Benedex and Cranfield University, the project aims to explore and develop an all‑weather perception subsystem for reliable automated driving across environments.
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ADventure – Led by Nissan and WMG, the ADventure project aims to develop a city‑ready autonomous mobility service model enabling safe commercial deployment in urban environments.
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5D Radar Perception for Intelligent Driving (5D RAPID) – Led by Oxford RF, in partnership with IPG Automotive, Ecosar Tech, Halo Drive, Coventry University and Cranfield University, 5D RAPID aims to develop advanced 5D radar technology for safer automated driving, enabling cost-effective vehicle perception, and strengthening the UK CAM supply chain.
For more information on CAM Pathfinder, visit: https://zenzic.io/cam-pathfinder/