Dive Brief:
- Military shipbuilder HII on Monday said it will collaborate with GrayMatter Robotics to begin integrating physical artificial intelligence into its shipbuilding operations.
- The companies signed a memorandum of understanding to explore ways to accelerate throughput, strengthen the maritime industrial base and augment HII’s shipbuilding workforce.
- GrayMatter’s technology will primarily focus on automating HII’s surface preparation, coating and inspection processes, according to a news release. The companies did not disclose financial details around their partnership.
Dive Insight:
Gray Matter’s robots, which can grind, blast and finish metal structures, would fit into HII’s automated workflow post-welding, Eric Chewning, executive vice president of maritime systems and corporate strategy, said on a press call Monday.
This partnership comes as the Trump administration looks to increase production of munitions, jets and ships amid a war with Iran. The Department of Defense recently proposed $65.8 billion toward shipbuilding for fiscal year 2027.
In recent years, HII has “invested heavily” in automation technologies deployed at its shipyards in Newport News, Virginia and Pascagoula, Mississippi, Chewning said. However, the technologies are “limited to largely repeatable” shipbuilding activities.
“There is a broader set of industrial use cases where we need a single robot to do 100,000 tasks just once,” he said. “And that, for physical AI, is a game-changer.”
As part of its partnership with GrayMatter, the companies plan to accelerate and scale unmanned system production and workforce training to support automation. They also agreed to pursue research and development around integrating GrayMatter’s physical AI models with other new shipbuilding technologies.
“We’re looking at bridging the gap between demand and capacity by bringing autonomous robots, physical AI, empowered robots, into sanding, grinding, coating, blasting, inspection among many other applications within the manufacturing processes of the shipbuilding industry,” GrayMatter Robotics CEO Ariyan Kabir said Monday.
HII’s shipbuilding throughput grew 14% last year, with plans to increase throughput by an additional 15% in 2026, according to the company’s fourth quarter earnings report. HII plans to achieve its goal, in part, through investments in digital engineering, AI software tools and robotics, Chewning said. HII also recently acquired a 480,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Charleston, South Carolina to expand its capacity.
GrayMatter has worked directly with the U.S. Navy and its maritime industrial base program, enabling it to certify and deploy its blasting, coating and inspection technologies across several industries, Kabir said. The startup has deployed its robots in more than 20 states and is working to bring its technology to Canada and Europe, he said. GrayMatter’s partnership with HII is its first foray into shipbuilding.
This is the second physical AI deal struck by HII this year. In February, the shipbuilder signed an agreement with Path Robotics focused on welding automation and upskilling its workforce for the technology. Currently, HII uses cobot welders that work alongside human workers. HII said Path’s AI robots would allow the company to expand shipbuilding capacity while augmenting its workforce.
HII is beginning to test physical AI, with the goal of qualifying the technologies and deploying them into its shipyards. The shipbuilder has already submitted initial paperwork for Path and will soon do the same for GrayMatter, Chewning said. The physical AI startups combined with HII and its shipbuilding expertise aim to transform industrial automation to meet the U.S. Navy’s growing demand.
“We think that cocktail is going to lead to beautiful things,” Chewning said.
