ABSTRACT
Automating the soil nailing process clearly has significantly positive commercial and environmental advantages, and progress towards a mobile machine realisation was initiated in 1987. The patents from the soil nailing process have been taken out in the names of Professor R J Bridle, Dr B I G Barr (colleagues at UWCC) and Mr M B Myles (Soil Nailing Ltd [1]). CardiffUniversity continued to exploit the technology and considerable experimental trials and a market survey have been necessary prior to Ryan International pic licensing the system from the University and funding the development of a prototype machine. The prototype machine was developed by the author, who is also a member of the soil nailing development team, and Compact Loaders Ltd , a local company specialising in mobile agricultural and forestry machines which are exported around the World.
