It has been confirmed that HD Hyundai is developing Physical Artificial Intelligence robots based on Nvidia’s robot simulation platform, Isaac Sim. HD Hyundai plans to deploy these robots across core shipbuilding processes, including welding.
According to Herald Economy reporting on June 22, HD Hyundai is currently pursuing the application of Physical AI robots trained on Nvidia’s Isaac Sim platform to its shipbuilding processes. An HD Hyundai official said, “We are developing the robots with the goal of deploying them on-site,” adding, “We will first apply them to welding, painting, and plate bending operations, and then review the possibility of further expansion.”
HD Hyundai’s shipyards currently use collaborative robots in construction operations. However, these robots have the limitation of requiring human operation. If a Physical AI environment is established through Isaac Sim, it is expected that a Physical AI-based construction environment will be realized in which robots independently perceive their surroundings and operate autonomously. Isaac Sim is Nvidia’s platform for training AI robots in virtual environments.
The method involves robots pre-learning data within Nvidia Omniverse, a 3D collaborative ecosystem where the same physical laws as the real world apply, before being deployed directly to actual sites.
Isaac Sim is characterized by its realism and scalability, built on Nvidia Omniverse and OpenUSD (Universal Scene Description), the next-generation data standard.
It creates visually realistic environments using real-time ray tracing technology and applies Nvidia’s Newton, a next-generation physics engine, to enable robots to accurately learn the physical laws of the real world.
Cameras and various sensors that serve as the robot’s eyes and ears also operate on the same mechanism as actual physical products. This allows developers to sufficiently verify autonomous navigation and precision manipulation technologies before on-site deployment.
Isaac Sim has also been recognized as having provided a breakthrough to the problem of data scarcity, which had been identified as the biggest obstacle to the widespread adoption of AI robots.
Training AI requires vast amounts of image and environmental data. With Isaac Sim, developers can change the lighting, colors, and positions of objects in the virtual world in tens of thousands of combinations with just a few mouse clicks.
HD Hyundai is the first shipbuilder in the world to adopt the Isaac Sim platform. Currently, Amazon in the logistics industry, and BMW of Germany and Toyota of Japan in the automotive industry, are using Isaac Sim-based robots in their on-site operations.
An HD Hyundai official explained, “The current level of development allows for simple welding to be performed on-site.”
Meanwhile, HD Hyundai has been collaborating with major domestic and international companies toward its goal of building a ‘Future Advanced Shipyard (FOS)’ by 2030, which connects all processes from design to construction through data.
In particular, the digital twin shipyard established last year with global technology companies Siemens and Nvidia received praise at CES 2026 from Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia, who called it “a perfect example that best demonstrates the concept of a digital twin.”
This year, HD Hyundai is proceeding with automation technology development alongside HD Hyundai Samho and HD Hyundai Robotics, and welding humanoid robot development with Persona AI. More recently, the company has been accelerating the realization of automated processes, including deploying Rainbow Robotics’ collaborative robots into its welding systems.
Source: Business Korea
