Large precast concrete bucket foundation for port and waterway engineering has multiple compartments sharing the same top slab,coupled with each other,and the difficulty of leveling construction is high.Excessive foundation inclination might increase resistance and even prevent sinking to designed depth.Thus,continuous and timely leveling control is vital during the sinking process.Current leveling control relies on manual operation,leading to issues such as delayed and passive leveling and low efficiency.To overcome such issues,research on automatic penetration technology is conducted based on the structural characteristics of large multi-compartment bucket foundations.A control mode dominated by foundation inclination and supplemented by pressure is proposed,and the 15 compartments bucket foundation is divided into 8 quadrants and 9 states.Using the PID（proportional，integral and derivative)method,an algorithm based on the real-time monitoring data to adjust the proportional valve opening is developed to control water extraction flow and inner pressure.An automatic leveling control program is then formulated.Engineering application results demonstrate that the automatic penetration technology can increase the penetration rate of large multi-compartment bucket foundations to 1.5 m/h.This reduces the installation time from the original 16-18 h under manual control to 12 h,with an efficiency increase of approximately 30%.Additionally,the elevation difference at monitoring points during installation is consistently maintained within 0.15 m,effectively enhancing control precision and ensuring stable and safe penetration.