Korea’s Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST) has launched a new research initiative to accelerate AI-driven transformation (AX) across the shipbuilding sector.
The project is supported by a total budget of KRW 40.3 billion (approx. US$30 million) and was selected as part of a national initiative for large-scale industrial AI from the Korean Ministry of Science and ICT.
The initiative aims to develop domain-specific AI foundation models trained on real-world shipyard data for deployment in operational environments. It involves a collaborative consortium including HD Hyundai Heavy Industries, HD Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering, and CrowdWorks.
Faculty from UNIST’s Graduate School of Artificial Intelligence and various engineering and business disciplines are participating in the project, which covers the full lifecycle of industrial AI from data generation and model training to system deployment and validation.
At the core of the project is the development of a multimodal foundation model for shipbuilding which will integrate diverse data generated across shipyard operations to serve as a central engine for different applications.
Parallel research workstreams aim to establish scalable industrial platforms and synthetic data generation to improve model robustness across diverse scenarios.
“This initiative goes beyond developing AI models – it establishes a foundation for industrial AX. By integrating AI into production planning, process optimisation, and quality control, we expect to drive meaningful innovation across the shipbuilding industry,” said UNIST Professor Seung-Hoon Na, Project Coordinator.
The project also includes the development of lightweight, on-device AI technologies to facilitate field validation and service deployment.
