HD Hyundai and Persona AI collaborate to develop humanoid welding robots for shipyards | Festina Lente - Your leading source of AI news | Turtles AI

HD Hyundai, Persona AI, and Vazil Company collaborate to develop humanoid welding robots for shipyards. The goal is to improve safety and productivity. The prototype is scheduled for 2026, with testing and commercialization in 2027.

Key points:

• HD Hyundai and Persona AI have signed an agreement for humanoid welding robots.
• Prototype scheduled for late 2026, commercialization from 2027.
• Goal: to increase productivity and safety in shipyards.
• Vazil Company and HD Hyundai Robotics participate in the project.

HD Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering (HD KSOE) and HD Hyundai Robotics announced that they have signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Persona AI and Vazil Company to develop humanoid welding robots for shipyards. The project aims to improve production efficiency and workplace safety, with the prototype scheduled for completion by the end of 2026 and field testing and commercialization starting in 2027.

Persona AI will lead the development of the humanoid hardware and AI-based control algorithms, while Vazil Company will provide welding tools and the industrial test environment. HD KSOE will support implementation in real shipyards and provide field engineering data, and HD Hyundai Robotics will contribute AI training data and performance validation.

This initiative is part of the K-Humanoid Alliance, launched by the South Korean government in April 2025 to strengthen the capabilities of the country’s humanoid ecosystem. The alliance involves companies, universities and government institutions with the goal of developing advanced humanoid robots by 2028.

HD Hyundai Robotics, founded in 2020, is a leading South Korean industrial robotics company, with an annual production of about 4,000 industrial robots and a range of 40 types of robots, including industrial robots, service robots and flat-panel display robots. The collaboration with Persona AI and Vazil Company represents a significant step toward advanced automation in shipyards.

HD KSOE Senior Vice President Dong-ju Lee said that welding humanoids will not only increase productivity, but also significantly reduce worker workload and improve safety. Persona AI CEO Nicolaus Radford stressed the urgency of robust and autonomous humanoid robots in heavy industry, especially in high-risk sectors such as welding. HD Hyundai Robotics Vice President Young-hoon Song highlighted the need for robots that can observe, reason, and make decisions, while Vazil Company CTO Sungwon Kim expressed excitement about the collaboration and the opportunity to take shipyard automation to the next level.

This strategic partnership between HD Hyundai, Persona AI, and Vazil Company marks a major evolution in the integration of humanoid robotics into the shipbuilding industry, aiming to create intelligent shipyards where humans and robots collaborate efficiently.