Liebherr is bringing some 100 or so exhibits to bauma 2025, to be displayed to the public on an exhibition space spanning more than 15 000 m². To kick off proceedings for the exhibition, the evening before the doors opened was marked with a ceremony to present the innovation award.
The innovation award honours groundbreaking developments across five categories in the construction, construction material and construction machine industry. 2025 sees the coveted prize awarded for a 14th time. Liebherr was among those taking part and was presented with the innovation award for the category ‘Digitalisation’ at the awards ceremony. The product crowned the winner was none other than ‘Liebherr Autonomous Operations’, which is propelling the construction site closer to the future.
Liebherr Autonomous Operations is an autonomous system for wheel loaders from Liebherr-Werk Bischofshofen GmbH and the result of many years of intensive development work. Using the system, the repetitive and monotonous tasks of a wheel loader can be undertaken simply and intuitively without a driver.
This helps counteract the difficulty of finding staff for monotonous routine tasks. At the same time, it can create space for employees to focus on more complex activities. In other words, it facilitates fully automated wheel loader operation.
The autonomous system gives operators a simple and user-friendly application that does not require any specialist IT knowledge. An added benefit: the autonomous optional extra is developed specifically for use with earthmoving machines and opens up new opportunities for planning jobs and organising working time. Liebherr Autonomous Operations is redefining efficiency and safety in the use of wheel loaders.
The competition that culminates in the innovation award is a collaborative project headed up by VDMA Construction Equipment and Plant Engineering, Messe München, the German Construction Industry Association (HDB), the Central Association of the German Construction Industry (ZDB) and the German Building Materials Association (bbs).
There are five categories in total, in recognition of exceptional achievements in the construction sector. These achievements help to make work methods, products and processes more eco-friendly, more efficient, safer and more future proof, even in an ever-changing environment. The categories are climate protection, digitalisation, machine technology, construction and research.
A Liebherr product was also honoured with an award at the last bauma, three years ago, when Liebherr France SAS won the prize for the climate protection category. Its R 9XX H2 hydrogen crawler excavator was recognised as a groundbreaking step towards a zero-emission construction site.
