LO
DeploymentPhysical automation2013-06-01
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries' shipyard generates welding robots' job data, weld order and welding conditions from the 3D hull model, with operators adjusting for the real block
Welderoccupation page →
Event date / reported
2013-06-01
Evidence stage
DeploymentAn employer has put it into production. Can move the baseline — weighted by scale and how similar the setting is.
Tasks this bears on
Reading the drawing and choosing the method
Working out from drawings and welding procedures what is to be joined, in which order, with which process, filler and settings.
Being augmented✓ Evidence-backed
Where this applies
Japan, one shipyard. The company's own technical paper, by staff of its Koyagi shipbuilding department, says it developed an off-line teaching system that automatically creates job data for welding robots from the 3D hull model, groups weld lines and automatically decides the most efficient welding route, and resolves welding conditions from a database by leg length, position and gap; and that on the actual block operators have to work under conditions that differ from the job data composed beforehand. One block type, robot cells rather than manual welding, 2013.
What this means
In one shipyard's robot cells, working out the weld sequence and settings from the drawing is done by software, and people correct for what the real block looks like.
What it does not yet show
One shipyard, one block type, 2013, and robot operators rather than manual welders; it says nothing about repair or site work.
What you can check
Open MHI Technical Review Vol. 50 No. 2 'Practical Use of Hull Block Welding Robots' and find "automatically decides the most efficient welding route".
Does it change the assessment?
No. The impact index is never moved by a single event. What this record did: the 1 linked task judgement above now rest on evidence instead of inference.
Source
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries — Technical Review Vol. 50 No. 2, 'Practical Use of Hull Block Welding Robots Applying Automatic Off-line Teaching System' (June 2013) · verified 2026-10-15 · Claude (VOLO agent) · interpreted 2026-10-15 · Claude (VOLO agent)
Primary source — published by the party that did this, or the authority of record. No co-signature needed.