ABB Cobots and the Coming Robot Shift in Shipyards

From Liberty ship welders to Korea's new shipyard robot standards: how ABB's GoFa welding cobot and Azipod propulsion fit the automation of shipbuilding.

INDUSTRIAL ROBOTICS

Chat With Robot

9/23/20261 min read

Ships have always been built by crowds of people. In 1943 American yards turned out Liberty ships in weeks, thanks to thousands of welders who worked in shifts inside half-finished hulls. Welding had replaced riveting, but every seam was still laid by a person holding an electrode.

Black and white photo of two welders in helmets sitting against a steel ship hull
Black and white photo of two welders in helmets sitting against a steel ship hull

Welders at work on the Liberty ship Frederick Douglass, 1943. Photo: Roger Smith / US Office of War Information via Wikimedia Commons (public domain)

Today's giant yards, like Hyundai Heavy Industries in Ulsan, weld ships from huge steel blocks. Flat panels are often welded by gantry machines, yet much of the work inside the blocks, in narrow double hulls and around pipes, is still manual. Yards in Korea and the US now struggle to hire enough welders.

Large shipyard with gantry cranes and ships along the coast seen from a hill
Large shipyard with gantry cranes and ships along the coast seen from a hill

Hyundai Heavy Industries' shipyard in Ulsan, South Korea. Photo: Wvdp / Wikimedia Commons (CC0)

On September 9, the Korean Register gathered about 80 people from Samsung Heavy Industries, Hyundai Motor, Kia and several universities in Seoul to work on safety standards for shipyard robots, covering navigation, collision avoidance with workers and emergency stops. In July it tested Hyundai's MobED mobile robot on board a ship. In the US, HII has signed production deals with Path Robotics and GrayMatter Robotics.

Two large red and silver ABB Azipod propulsion pods on transport frames
Two large red and silver ABB Azipod propulsion pods on transport frames

ABB Azipod propulsion units waiting at a Helsinki shipyard. Photo: Petri Krohn / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

ABB's GoFa Cobot Arc Welding Package lets a welder guide the torch by hand to teach a seam with the Easy Teach Device, with no code, and the cobot then repeats the weld. A light cobot like this could be carried into a ship block, which a caged industrial robot can't be.

Welder standing beside an ABB GoFa cobot holding a welding torch over a steel table
Welder standing beside an ABB GoFa cobot holding a welding torch over a steel table

ABB's GoFa Cobot Arc Welding Package on a welding table. Photo: ABB

ABB is already part of many ships. It builds Azipod electric propulsion units, which are delivered to shipyards and fitted under the hull of icebreakers, ferries and cruise ships. I like the idea of ABB welding robots one day helping build the hulls that its motors push through the water.

Gloved hands guiding a welding torch mounted on a white ABB cobot
Gloved hands guiding a welding torch mounted on a white ABB cobot

Teaching a weld by hand with ABB's Easy Teach Device on the GoFa torch. Photo: ABB

I expect shipyards to go the way car plants did, only slower: first robots for the repetitive seams, then mobile robots and humanoids moving between decks once standards like Korea's are in place. The welders who remain will spend more of their time teaching and checking machines.

Gloved hand holding a cobot welding torch against a steel pipe on a table
Gloved hand holding a cobot welding torch against a steel pipe on a table

Guiding the GoFa torch to a pipe joint before the cobot repeats the weld. Photo: ABB

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