LANDCROS Mini Takes Honours at SaMoTer 2026
Hitachi Construction Machinery Europe (HCME) has won two prestigious SaMoTer Innovation Awards for the LANDCROS Mini concept excavator: the Design Award and a Technical Mention in the hydraulic excavator category. This marks a deliberate and irreversible shift in how this company thinks about building machines in the future.
A Different Starting Point
For decades, compact excavator cabs have been designed the same way: engineers find the available space and fit the controls into it. The LANDCROS Mini flips that logic entirely. We started with the operator, their instincts, their movements, their frustrations, their expectations and worked outward from there. The cab is shaped around the human, not the other way around.
The result is a five-tonne concept machine that manages to feel spacious precisely because we refused to accept that a small cab has to be a compromised one. By leveraging blind spots in the cab frame, space that was always there but never used, we created room where operators actually need it. That is the kind of thinking that defines LANDCROS.
Built Around the Person in the Seat
Every feature of the LANDCROS Mini exists because someone on a real job site needed it. A 360-degree view from the cab, because blind spots cost lives. An integrated communication device with speaker and microphone, because operators spend their days coordinating with ground-workers but are cut off inside a sealed cab. A slidable secondary display that can accommodate third-party solutions, including Rototilt, or any other third-party partner, without taking space in the cab with additional monitors.
Safety is embedded into the design rather than bolted on. An innovative LED lighting system, linked to external sensors, detects people approaching the machine and alerts the operator by turning the interior lights red. The exterior LED lights alerts the people around the machine to see that the machine is in operation. Visibility has been improved further by relocating the windscreen wiper motor to the right side of the front window, clearing the sightline to the left, a small change that makes a real difference in tight working conditions.
And then there are the details that experienced operators will immediately recognize: a distinctive step and extended handle that make access easier and the door simpler to close from inside; ergonomic joystick buttons and detachable travel levers that free up foot space and reduce fatigue over a long shift; and a set of thoughtfully designed storage solutions like the Backpack behind the seat, the Saddle for boots and gear at the side, and the Nest built into the seat itself, along with a phone charging point within easy reach.
These styling choices represent the direct translation of what operators told us they needed.
From Automotive to Construction - The Phygital Leap
The LANDCROS Mini was developed using virtual design and augmented reality tools, methodologies that have long been standard in automotive but have never before been applied at this level to compact construction machinery. The concept was tested, refined, and validated in a digital environment before a single physical component was produced. The result is a machine that looks like the future precisely because it was designed there first.
We call this approach Phygital: the seamless conversion of digital design intelligence into physical reality. For the construction equipment industry, it is a new frontier. For LANDCROS, it is where we intend to operate.
Italy First, For Good Reason
Italy is one of the most important markets for mini excavators in Europe, home to operators who are among the most demanding and discerning in the world. Presenting the LANDCROS Mini here, at SaMoTer is a deliberate and natural choice. We want direct feedback from the people whose opinions matter most.
Visitors to Stand M3-N4 (Hall 10) between 6 and 9 May are invited to step inside the cab, interact with its features, and rate them based on their own experience on site. That feedback will directly inform the engineering decisions we make on the next generation of LANDCROS compact machines.
Norihiko Kinugawa, Product Manager, HCME
“This concept model is based on the ZX55U-6, but what we’re really testing is a new design philosophy. We’ve given operators a unique opportunity to have a direct influence on the machines that will shape tomorrow’s job sites. We’re listening, and what they tell us here in Verona will drive the decisions we make in the engineering room.”
Francesco Quaranta, President & CEO, HCME
"LANDCROS is built on a simple principle: the customer comes first, and technology serves that, not the other way around. LANDCROS MINI is what happens when you take that seriously. We are deeply honored by the award. The operator's verdict will drive us.”
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