Korean shipbuilders are rapidly adopting artificial intelligence and robotics to create next generation smart shipyards. At HD Hyundai Mipo Dockyard, welding robots are now handling complex deck work once done only by skilled workers, with the company aiming to raise automation for deck block welding to about eighty percent.

D Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries is using more than eighty welding robots and has become the first to apply collaborative robots to the fabrication of large curved hull blocks, a task traditionally dependent on the instinct and experience of expert plate benders.

Samsung Heavy Industries is partnering with robotics firms to develop advanced AI supported welding systems, mobile dual arm robots and magnetic spider type robots capable of climbing steel hulls. Korea’s major shipbuilders, including HD Korea Shipbuilding and Offshore Engineering, Hanwha Ocean and Samsung Heavy Industries, are investing heavily in smart yard development, supported by technology leaders such as Nvidia and Naver.

Hanwha Ocean is spending one hundred sixty billion won to transform its Geoje yard and extend smart yard technology to its United States based Philly Shipyard. Samsung Heavy Industries has introduced an automated design platform that will connect design, procurement and production data by 2030.

HD Hyundai is expanding its digital twin based visible shipyard into a fully connected AI driven yard and plans to operate an intelligent autonomous shipyard by 2030 that will lift productivity by thirty percent and reduce construction time by thirty percent.

Naver and Nvidia are building a physical AI platform that will simulate shipyard environments and support customized software based on individual yard data. Experts say these advancements will reduce dependence on skilled labor, support expansion overseas and may eventually allow Korean builders to export entire smart shipyard systems.

Culled from koreajoongangdaily