How Huntington Ingalls Industries Plans to Change Shipbuilding With Path Robotics AI Technology

The Current State of Welding in Naval Shipbuilding

Manual Welding Dominates Complex Ship Construction

Modern ships continue to rely on a manual arc-welding process more than fifty years old, despite many technological advances in metal fabrication over recent decades. The shipbuilding industry has ignored newer welding processes that other manufacturing sectors adopted. This creates a technological gap that affects production capacity. Skilled welders execute most work by hand and navigate confined spaces where they kneel or lie down as standard practice. These challenging conditions just need exceptional skill levels and create difficulties in recruiting qualified personnel.

The physical demands extend beyond uncomfortable positions. Welders face extreme temperatures, sometimes exceeding 50°C in outdoor shipyard environments, while they maintain precision on critical structural joints. Classification societies impose rigorous quality standards and require inspection protocols that include X-ray examination of about 30 percent of cross joints on vessels. Any defects found during these inspections make costly rework a must. This involves milling and grinding, plus complete rewelding from the root layer upward.

Existing Automation Requires Constant Human Oversight

Shipyards that have introduced robotic welding systems still face implementation challenges. High-quality output on complex welding jobs requires careful calibration and continuous oversight. The machinery from different manufacturers must communicate well, yet without standardization, synchronizing operations becomes problematic. Automotive manufacturing integrated automation decades ago. Naval construction lags behind due to unique vessel complexities and variable joint configurations.

Collaborative robots, or cobots, assist human welders but cannot operate on their own on intricate ship structures. These systems depend on sensors to detect operator movements and correct for excessive pressure or misplaced weld arcs, yet they still just need skilled technicians to manage the process. The promise of 24/7 automated production lines remains unrealized in naval shipbuilding, especially when you have submarine and aircraft carrier construction where precision tolerances are non-negotiable.

Throughput Bottlenecks in Large-Scale Naval Programs

Welding takes up roughly eighteen percent of all submarine manufacturing hours. This makes deficiencies in this process a bottleneck for downstream operations. Variation from human factors, combined with long setup times and testing requirements, leads to cost overruns on complicated subassemblies. Growing demands from the COLUMBIA-class and Virginia Payload Module programs reaching full production intensify pressure on an already constrained workforce.

The maritime industrial base must hire about 174,000 new workers over the next decade to meet shipbuilding goals. Attrition rates compound this challenge. Average workers leave at rates between 20% and 22% each year, while critical trades experience departures exceeding 30%. Shipyards cannot improve their condition with turnover at these levels. This forces continuous training cycles that drain resources and delay vessel deliveries.

Huntington Ingalls Industries and Path Robotics Partnership Details

February 2026 Memorandum of Understanding

Huntington Ingalls Industries and Path Robotics formalized their collaboration on February 17, 2026, signing a memorandum of understanding at Path Robotics’ headquarters in Columbus, Ohio. Eric Chewning, executive vice president of maritime systems and corporate strategy at Huntington Ingalls Industries, attended the ceremony alongside Andy Lonsberry, CEO and co-founder of Path Robotics. The signing followed a detailed factory tour where attendees, including local dignitaries and stakeholders, observed live welding demonstrations in Path’s new intelligence center.

These demonstrations showcased applications for naval fabrication ranging from heavy foundations to large, complex ship structural assemblies. The autonomous welding systems displayed their capacity to adapt to unpredictable shipyard conditions, including fit variations and complex joint types. Huntington Ingalls divisions perform specialized, high-tolerance welding on large ship structures without AI-based autonomous welding capability. They rely on traditional panel line units and cobot welders working alongside shipbuilders or mechanized welders that follow pre-programmed paths.

Three Core Collaboration Areas

The partnership identifies three specific areas to develop and pursue. Autonomous shipbuilding capability development wants to create systems that can operate with reduced human intervention on complex structural welds. Workforce training programs will prepare shipbuilders to extend automation throughout fabrication processes and ensure skilled personnel can manage and optimize AI-driven systems. Establishing an intellectual property framework for physical AI-based autonomous welding systems will enable scaling in shipyard facilities of all types while protecting proprietary technologies.

Both companies will also pursue research and development to integrate Path’s physical AI models with other shipbuilding technologies used in constructing Huntington Ingalls vessels. This integration extends to the ROMULUS line of unmanned surface vehicles and combines autonomous welding with unmanned vessel production to advance national security objectives.

Timeline and Throughput Targets

Huntington Ingalls Industries reported shipbuilding throughput increased 14% in 2025. The company targets an additional 15% throughput increase for 2026. Chewning stated the partnership with Path Robotics would help develop an autonomous AI-based welding solution that meets Navy standards while scaling in shipyard facilities of all types. The collaboration seeks to increase the welding workforce, automate structural production, and accelerate throughput without sacrificing quality standards.

How Path Robotics Physical AI Technology Works

Obsidian™ Welding Model Explained

Path Robotics developed Obsidian as the first purpose-built foundational AI model designed for welding applications. The system went through training on tens of millions of welded inches and built a detailed understanding of welding physics and craft techniques. Traditional robotic systems require precise programming for every part variation. Obsidian scans each seam, plans the weld in real time, and adjusts as conditions change. This approach eliminates brittle code and constant reprogramming requirements that plague conventional automation.

Real-Time Vision and Sensing Systems

Path Robotics combines Obsidian with proprietary sensing and vision systems that transform standard industrial robot arms from rigid, repeat-only machines into real-time perception and decision-making platforms. These systems enable robots to see, understand, and adapt to variations inherent in shipbuilding environments. The vision architecture processes complex 3D environments and identifies object geometry and physical properties needed for interaction. Then the technology achieves perception approaching human-level capabilities while maintaining consistent quality standards.

Adapting to Unpredictable Shipyard Conditions

Demonstrations at Path Robotics’ intelligence center revealed how autonomous welding systems handle unpredictable shipyard scenarios. The technology adapts to fit variations between components, manages complex joint types across different structural assemblies, and accommodates varying materials without manual intervention. This adaptability proves especially valuable for naval fabrication, where heavy foundations and large ship structural assemblies present changing parameters.

Integration With ROMULUS Unmanned Surface Vehicles

Research and development efforts focus on integrating Path’s physical AI models with technologies used in constructing Huntington Ingalls vessels, including the ROMULUS line of unmanned surface vehicles. This integration combines autonomous welding capabilities with unmanned vessel production and creates synergies that increase workforce capacity while automating structural production. The combined technologies address national security objectives by accelerating delivery timelines for both manned and unmanned naval platforms.

Expected Impact on Shipbuilding Operations and National Security

Workforce Augmentation vs Replacement Strategy

The collaboration positions AI-driven welding as a tool to increase human workers’ capabilities rather than replace them. Training programs are one of three core partnership areas and ensure shipbuilders gain skills to manage and optimize autonomous systems. Lonsberry emphasized that welding automation addresses one of manufacturing’s hardest challenges while working alongside the nation’s largest military shipbuilder during a critical period for national defense.

This approach lines up with broader Navy advanced manufacturing initiatives, where cobot welding programs increased first-time production quality from 70% to 95%. The programs deployed at least 10 welding robots across shipyards and suppliers. Avoiding rework protects schedules, a significant factor when submarine production delivers 1.1 to 1.2 boats annually against a two-per-year target.

Accelerating Naval Production Capacity

Huntington Ingalls Industries achieved 14% throughput growth in 2025 and targets an additional 15% increase in 2026. Chewning stated the Path Robotics partnership would help accelerate both manned and unmanned Navy shipbuilding production while meeting quality standards. AI-driven autonomous welding presents opportunities to expand distributed shipbuilding capacity and meet growing U.S. Navy needs.

Strengthening the Maritime Industrial Base

The partnership supports objectives outlined in the Navy’s Maritime Industrial Base Program, which guides efforts to refresh America’s shipbuilding and repair capabilities. The program manages over 800 initiatives in 38 states as of recent data and strengthens the maritime supply chain by adding capability and capacity to key suppliers. Autonomous welding technologies would automate structural production and accelerate throughput to advance national security objectives together.

Conclusion

AI-driven welding technology addresses one of the most persistent bottlenecks in naval shipbuilding. The partnership between Huntington Ingalls Industries and Path Robotics demonstrates how physical AI can complement skilled workers rather than replace them, especially when you have severe workforce shortages in the maritime industrial base.

Path Robotics’ Obsidian technology gives shipyards a proven solution to meet aggressive throughput targets and maintain Navy quality standards. Autonomous welding systems that adapt to unpredictable conditions could change submarine and surface vessel production timelines. This directly supports national security objectives during a critical expansion period.