Can artificial intelligence be applied to the shipbuilding industry?

At present, a number of intelligent ship and unmanned ship projects have been launched worldwide, such as the 38800-ton intelligent demonstration ship construction project led by China State Shipbuilding Corporation and the EU-funded research and development codenamed “MARS”. The boat project, the DNV GL unmanned ship design project, and the Hyundai Heavy Industries' smart ship networking system project. Ships built in China will be able to achieve ship-wide information sharing, independent assessment and decision-making, ship-shore integration, remote support and services; the unmanned "MARS" is expected to sail to the Atlantic in 2020; DNV GL has developed a new concept of unmanned FLNG (Floating LNG Plant) before designing an unmanned carrier. The shipbuilding industry is carrying out smart ship research step by step, and artificial intelligence that is going to be a thousand miles may drive the acceleration of these projects.

The application of artificial intelligence on ships, in addition to operations, is also designed and built. At present, the design and construction of ships generally use software, robotic arms, etc., which is an initial level of artificial intelligence. South Korea and Japan, which are ahead of this, now have complete intelligent design, production operation and operation management systems; they have intelligent control systems from ship design, R&D to construction. Welding robots, assembly robots, painting robots, palletizing robots, and handling robots have been used in shipyards. They have largely surpassed traditional robots and have obvious effects in reducing errors, increasing productivity, and saving costs. In August 2014, the new shipbuilding construction tool for the development of Daewoo Shipbuilding Marine in South Korea, the exoskeleton power pack, began to be used at the shipbuilding site. This exoskeleton power pack can be worn on workers to assist workers in carrying heavy loads. It can be said that artificial intelligence has been widely used in shipbuilding operations, but due to the non-standardization and customization characteristics of marine products, there are still some difficulties in the application of robots in shipyards. So, can artificial intelligence with deep learning ability make this problem no longer a problem? This deserves our deep thinking and bold attempts.