Humanoids Enter the Shipyard: N.Light–AIRobot Launch Hanwha Ocean Pilot
NdotLight and Airobot announced on the 8th that they are pursuing a field demonstration of humanoid robots in the shipbuilding industry at Hanwha Ocean. Over the course of one year, the two companies will train humanoid robots and verify their potential for deployment at shipyards. The primary goal is to have humanoid robots replace dangerous, repetitive tasks currently performed by humans. Hanwha Ocean will use the project to explore potential use cases for applying humanoid robots to shipbuilding operations.
Humanoid robots can use the same workspaces, equipment, and pathways designed for humans. This makes it possible for them to perform tasks that are difficult to address with conventional automation equipment. If the demonstration project is successfully completed, humanoid robots are expected to improve safety and productivity across a range of shipbuilding operations, including inspections of hazardous areas, repetitive movement around worksites, and the transportation of equipment and materials.
As part of the demonstration, NdotLight will be responsible for building the data infrastructure and simulation environment using NVIDIA Omniverse and NVIDIA Isaac Sim. The company will enable the robots to repeatedly learn scenarios involving movement, task execution, obstacle avoidance, and manipulation in a virtual environment before being deployed in the real world.
NdotLight will also build a digital twin environment that closely resembles an actual shipyard, leveraging its proprietary 3D CAD engine and 3D AI technologies. Within this virtual environment, the company plans to generate Sim-Ready 3D assets, physics-based simulation environments, and synthetic data required for humanoid robot training and validation.
Airobot will train humanoid robots using motion data collected from industrial environments. Based on its humanoid robot ALICE, Airobot will verify the robot’s ability to perform tasks required in shipyards, including transporting heavy materials, autonomous navigation, and walking across challenging terrain. The goal is to determine whether humanoid robots can replace repetitive tasks that are difficult or dangerous for humans to perform.
Park Jin-young, CEO of NdotLight, said, “NdotLight will support the shipbuilding field demonstration using Airobot’s humanoid robots in progressing toward real-world deployment through our technologies for simulation environments, Sim-Ready 3D assets, and synthetic data generation.”
Eom Yoon-seol, CEO of Airobot, said, “By combining Airobot’s robotics technology with NdotLight’s Sim-Ready data infrastructure, we will demonstrate the potential for robots to take on physical tasks that are difficult or dangerous for humans to perform.”
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