Nishimatsu Construction developed a new system that automatically supplies explosives to remote charging equipment to automate charging operations in mountain tunnels. The announcement was based on a press release dated 21 October 2026.
A mechanism for automatically supplying explosives to remote charging equipment was developed as a new system for automating charging operations in mountain tunnel construction. Previously, workers manually supplied explosives to each charging hole, but the new configuration enables this work to be performed automatically using a robotic arm.
The system was developed as part of efforts to automate and unmanned construction centered on Tunnel RemOS (Tunnel RemOS). The aim is to realize remote charging equipment that enables charging operations without workers entering the area extending approximately 45 degrees from the top of the tunnel face. Field demonstrations confirmed that charging operations could be performed with the tunnel face unmanned.
The field demonstration was conducted at the Oshima Tunnel (Daibayama) construction project on the Hokkaido Shinkansen. The company said it confirmed that charging operations could be performed in an unmanned environment. This demonstrated progress toward automating conventional work procedures.
Going forward, the company plans to advance efforts toward fully unmanned and fully automated mountain tunnel construction through the practical implementation of the system for automatically supplying explosives to remote charging equipment.