Development of In-house AI Translation Service AI Agent
Applied to HD Hyundai Samho Shipbuilding Site
Operating scene of 'AI Agent,' a shipbuilding industry-tailored AI translation service developed by HD Korea Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering. Photo by HD Korea Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering
HD Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering is developing customized 'AI translation technology' to help foreign workers adapt.
HD Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering announced on the 9th that it recently completed the first phase of development of the translation service 'AI Agent,' based on generative AI, and applied it at the shipbuilding site of HD Hyundai Samho located in Yeongam, Jeollanam-do.
The AI Agent is a translation service independently developed by HD Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering to improve the work efficiency and skill level of foreign workers within the shipyard. It is optimized for actual shipbuilding sites and tailored specifically for the shipbuilding industry.
Previously used general-purpose translation services failed to properly handle specialized terminology or dialects commonly used at shipyards, resulting in poor communication. Additionally, since foreign workers use different languages, settings had to be adjusted each time, causing inconvenience.
To address this, HD Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering collected 13,000 standard shipbuilding terms used on-site and nationally, along with 4,200 work instruction sentences used during the shipbuilding process, and trained a large language model (LLM) to develop a shipbuilding industry-customized translation service.
The AI Agent consists of three components: a chat app, a chatbot server, and a translation module. When a worker inputs a conversation into the chat app, the message is sent to the translation module via the chatbot server, automatically translated, and then displayed in the chat app. At HD Hyundai Samho, the system is integrated with the company’s proprietary work chat app 'TeamUp,' enabling automatic translation of input text into the worker’s selected language, enhancing user convenience.
HD Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering plans to expand the AI Agent service to all affiliated companies in the shipbuilding sector, including HD Hyundai Heavy Industries and HD Hyundai Mipo, by the end of this year. Supported languages will also increase from the current four?Vietnamese, Uzbek, Nepali, and Thai?to eleven languages.
Furthermore, HD Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering plans to advance the AI Agent service in three stages. In the second phase, voice-to-text and text-to-voice conversion functions will be added to the translation feature, and ultimately, the third phase will include real-time translation of foreign workers’ speech.
Through this, HD Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering intends to operate the AI Agent as an integrated solution supporting all aspects of foreign workers’ lives, including safety, quality, education, and daily guidance.
An official from HD Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering stated, "Clear communication through smooth transmission of work instructions is directly linked to ensuring the safety of foreign workers. We will spare no effort to support our foreign workers, who are our colleagues and family, to adapt easily to the site."
Meanwhile, HD Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering is implementing various policies to ensure the successful settlement of foreign workers and the creation of a safe working environment, including operating a foreign worker support center, providing job and technical training, and distributing safety education materials produced in local languages.
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