Erosion
Foam-conditioned excavation with Venturi material transport.
Slower and harder than Alpha’s head. Conditioning foam injected behind the wheel keeps clay from packing the chamber.
- Torque
- 9.5kNm
- Rotation speed
- 12rpm
Groundhog Beta
Two competitions, one machine, and the team’s first win.
- Seasons
- 2023 / 2024
- Best result
- 1st place, 2024
- Awards
- Champion · Innovation
- Sensors
- 85
Made to run twice.
Beta took Alpha’s architecture and made it work reliably. Ground conditioning foam was added behind the cutting head to stop clay from clogging the chamber, the liner moved to a pneumatically fed thermoplastic system, and sensor count rose to 85 for autonomous guidance. It placed second in 2023 and won outright in 2024.
1st place · Champion Award — Not-a-Boring Competition 2024 — Bastrop, Texas
9.5kNm
Cutting torque200kN
Propulsion force85
Onboard sensors15mm
Liner thicknessWhat travels underground
Everything between the cutting face and the rear grippers — out of reach once a run starts.
Steering & navigation
85 sensors feeding a six-cylinder hydraulic hexapod.
Fused sensor data drives the hexapod to millimetre-level accuracy. The operator sets a line; the machine holds it.
- Sensors
- 85
- Degrees of freedom
- 6
- Jackhammer frequency
- 20Hz
Liner
Thermoplastic polymer blown 70 km/h down the tunnel and extruded.
Granulate is blown from the surface silo, melted on board and extruded into a continuous 15 mm wall. Nothing is carried in by hand.
- Wall thickness
- 15mm
- Polymer transport speed
- 70km/h
Propulsion
Sixteen cylinders, eight gripper plates, 200 kN of continuous thrust.
Cylinder groups alternate against the gripper plates so thrust never drops to zero between strokes.
- Total thrust
- 200kN
- Cylinders
- 16
- Gripper plates
- 8
What stays above ground
Butler, the launch platform, the software and the site layout.
Butler
The service unit that follows the machine down the tunnel.
Starting platform
Adjustable launch angle — no excavated starting pit required.
Software
Control, live telemetry and post-run analysis.
Launching area
The full surface footprint: hydraulics, silo, tanks, generator.
Bastrop, 2023
Second place and the Innovation Award at the Not-a-Boring Competition.
Project Marmot takes it further
Faster, more maneuverable, more autonomous — packed into a shippable container.