— Introducing autonomous machines to construction areas can improve many of the occurring processes. Therefore, this paper deals with problems in the field of creating an autonomous bucket excavator. A novel behavior-based approach for motion control is presented which allows natural boom trajectories, achieves good environment disturbance compensation behavior, guarantees safety of the movements concerning human beings and structures, and keeps a high extensibility of the system for future improvements. Furthermore, a simulation of soil deals as the basis for safe tests of the excavator’s behavior in a simulated dynamic environment.