Hitachi Construction Machinery Initiates R&D for Physical AI to Learn Hydraulic Excavator Operator Skills

Hitachi Construction Machinery will begin research and development in October 2026 on 'Physical AI' designed to learn hydraulic excavator operator skills. This project, selected for Japan's national GENIAC initiative, aims to achieve autonomous operation in construction machinery by training AI on human operator data, enabling it to make decisions and perform operations based on real-world site conditions.