Japanese and US maritime leaders discuss shipbuilding partnerships at U-M and Newlab
“We’re here to rebuild the industrial foundation of our two nations.”
Key takeaways
Shipbuilding
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- Engineers and executives from major shipyards, robotics companies and maritime suppliers in the U.S. and Japan, as well as representatives of government agencies from both countries, met at Detroit’s Newlab and the University of Michigan to discuss collaboration for advanced shipbuilding.
- U-M professors shared insights on how the Great Lakes region could play a large role in the industry, as well as highlights from their collaborations with Japanese researchers and companies to develop robotics and AI technologies for shipbuilding.
- The conference concluded with a groundbreaking ceremony for a new shipbuilding test block to support collaborative research projects between the U.S. and Japan.
With anchors in hand, leaders from University of Michigan Engineering broke ground for a new ship test environment that will advance shipbuilding in the U.S. and Japan, with collaborators from Japan and Wisconsin’s Bay Engineering.
When Bay Engineering finishes building the test environment, called a shipbuilding test block, it will allow U-M and Japanese researchers to test robotic and AI systems designed to detect and help correct shipbuilding issues. The test block resembles the inside of a ship under construction, and it can be reconfigured to represent different parts of a ship at various stages of outfitting—the installation of pipes, cables, electrical systems and other equipment.
The research will be led by Alan Papalia, a U-M professor of naval architecture and marine engineering, in collaboration with Hideyuki Ando from the Monohakobi Technology Institute (MTI), an R&D Center within NYK Line, a global shipping and logistics company based in Japan.
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