BUSAN — Efforts to bring robotics such as autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) and humanoids into shipyards and onto vessels are gaining momentum. Long work routes and hazardous tasks at height or in confined spaces make the shipbuilding and offshore industry a natural fit for robots, which are drawing attention not only as a way to lift productivity but also to protect worker safety.
The Korean Register (KR) held its 2026 Shipbuilding and Marine Robotics Technology Seminar in Yangjae-dong, Seoul, on the 9th, with about 80 officials from shipping lines, shipbuilders and equipment makers attending, according to industry sources on the 10th. Participants discussed ways to apply autonomous driving and robotics technologies — advancing rapidly in the automotive and robotics industries — to shipbuilding and offshore operations, and how to establish safety and performance standards for field deployment.
Technologies presented ranged from autonomous mobile platforms for shipyard logistics automation to humanoids, quadruped robots, robot foundation models (RFMs), autonomous driving and integrated control systems. Officials from Samsung Heavy Industries, Hyundai Motor and Kia, the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Hanyang University and Kyungpook National University shared technology trends and assessed how the systems could be applied in shipyards.
The bigger challenge lies less in the technology itself than in securing the safety and verification systems needed to deploy it on site. Shipyards combine large structures with complex work routes, and ship interiors contain many confined and elevated spaces. That demands comprehensive safety standards covering not only autonomous navigation performance but also collision avoidance with workers, communications and data integration, and emergency response.
KR is moving faster to draw up safety and performance standards and inspection systems in preparation for field deployment. In July this year, it carried out what it called the world's first shipboard demonstration of the MobED mobile robot platform, together with Hyundai Motor and Kia, HMM, HMM Ocean Service and Goseong Engineering.
Industry officials expect the scope of robot use to widen from logistics and material handling into inspection and maintenance, as labor shortages and high-risk tasks persist in shipbuilding. As a result, who first establishes certification and inspection standards suited to the particular conditions of ships and shipyards — alongside the competitiveness of the robots themselves — is expected to be a key variable in how the market expands.
"Robotics will be an important means of improving safety and productivity at shipbuilding and offshore sites," said Kim Dae-heon, executive vice president at KR. "We will move ahead of the curve in setting safety and performance standards and inspection systems for robots, and support the maritime industry in adopting them safely through demonstrations and technical verification."
