Page 48: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (February 2026)

TECH FEATURE within a thousandth of an inch. Completing repairs on a single

A Cobot in the Engine Room engine block with about a dozen crank line saddles would take

The Navy is championing the shift toward robotic plat- forms through its Maritime Industrial Base (MIB) Program, around three weeks of grueling work. Robotic welding is re- a collaboration between industry, government and academia ducing that time down to one week.

A recent demonstration on a U.S. submarine featured a suc- to revitalize U.S. shipbuilding and sustainment. The MIB has been providing vital funding for automation programs, like cessful crank line repair on a diesel backup engine. The ro- botic platform was lowered into the engine room and oriented advanced robotics, additive manufacturing and AI, to fuel ef- on a track. The cobot was out? tted with a camera and trained ? ciency, speed and supply chain resilience. on a library of thousands of images of expert welds. Using a

A successful automation implementation starts with a targeted machine learning algorithm, the cobot was able to grade its scope, rather than trying to revolutionize everything at once. The work and ? ag questionable welds. key is identifying a speci? c, high-impact process, proving mea-

Human operators remained in the loop to help the cobot surable results and then scaling. For FMD’s robotics program, determine whether to rework an area or move on to the next. that sweet spot was a 75% ef? ciency gain on a repetitive, high-

The cobot completed the job in one-third of the time it would precision welding job for an aging ? eet of nuclear submarines. have taken an experienced welder. While the welder oversaw

As a long-time principal supplier of propulsion systems for the operation, they avoided the cramped quarters, fatigue and the U.S. nuclear navy, FMD is responsible for sustainment of exhausting heat of a summertime repair job.

a ? eet of diesel engines that provide emergency backup power to onboard nuclear reactors. These 30–35-year-old engines

A Technology Edge for Workers pose a unique welding challenge. Years of service have de-

Skilled workers are in short supply. The U.S. Navy is mil- graded the engine blocks and the series of crank line saddles.

Traditionally, repairing these components meant a human lions of labor hours behind what it needs to build and main- welder had to squeeze into a tight engine room to operate a tain the submarine ? eet, and it’s actively recruiting more than multi-thousand-degree welding arc and achieve precision 140,000 workers to the submarine industrial base. Workers 48 Maritime Reporter & Engineering News • February 2026

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