Does keeping a human in the loop always produce better results? Heather Carroll, Chief Revenue Officer at Path Robotics, joins Nick Chubb and Raal Harris on UnDocked to explore how physical AI is changing robotic welding and what this could mean for shipbuilding, skilled workers and the future of maritime manufacturing.

CHAPTERS

00:00 – Heather's journey into robotic welding

02:53 – Robots, jobs and the shortage of welders

05:53 – How AI learns to weld through practice

09:07 – The origins of Path Robotics

16:01 – Why conventional automation struggles in shipyards

17:17 – Rove: the robot dog that can weld

19:16 – How automation could change skilled work

21:55 – The submarine welder's extraordinary working conditions

23:55 – Rebuilding American shipbuilding capacity

34:32 – HII, Path Robotics and the HYPR programme

41:58 – What tomorrow's shipyards could look like

48:09 – Weld quality, inspection and costly rework

53:23 – Could robotic maintenance eventually move onboard?

56:51 – Challenging the human-in-the-loop assumption

1:01:24 – How AI operates within welding standards

1:06:06 – NAVSEA, ABS and accepting robotic welding

1:09:31 – Resilience, reshoring and future shipbuilding

Heather's interest in welding is personal. Her husband operated a manufacturing business that struggled to find skilled welders, a problem that eventually contributed to his decision to sell it.

She explains how Path Robotics trains its Obsidian AI model using real-world welding data, why conventional industrial robots struggle with shipbuilding and how mobile systems such as Rove might offer new possibilities.

The discussion covers Path's collaboration with Saronic and its work with HII and GrayMatter Robotics. Heather also describes the working conditions faced by a submarine welder, raising difficult questions about safety and how skilled labour is used.

Later, the conversation turns to an assumption familiar across maritime AI: that a human should always remain in the loop. Heather makes the case for allowing trained models to adapt within approved welding procedures, while acknowledging where human involvement and technical oversight remain essential.

Nick and Raal also explore the potential for robotic maintenance at sea, the challenges of gaining technical acceptance and what a more automated shipbuilding industry could look like.

EPISODE PARTNER

Adding another digital system to the fleet is easy. Getting it to work seamlessly with everything else is where the real work starts.

Disconnected platforms create duplicate data, manual workarounds and unnecessary complexity across a fleet. Insight and SmartSea bring it together through a common integration layer connecting onboard operations, applications and data into one end-to-end environment — a fleet that's easier to manage, easier to scale, and ready for whatever comes next.

Because the best technology doesn't work in isolation. It works together.

Connect your fleet with Insight.

#UnDocked #Shipbuilding #PhysicalAI #MaritimeTechnology #Robotics

Recorded live at the Digital Ships Summit in Athens, Nick Chubb and Raal Harris debate whether shipping should prioritise efficiency or resilience as AI reshapes technology decisions.

From vendor dependence and workforce skills to governance and boardroom accountability, they ask how operators can embrace automation without surrendering control or flexibility.

CHAPTERS

• 00:20 IT's move from support to strategy
• 04:50 Episode partner: trusted fleet data
• 05:33 Efficiency or resilience?
• 09:42 Vendor lock-in and skills fade
• 15:14 Transforming organisations for AI
• 17:10 Leadership and AI governance
• 21:55 Measuring returns and building capability
• 27:11 Audience: data risks and shadow AI
• 32:29 Digital twins and human resilience

Live at the Digital Ships Summit in Athens, Nick and Raal begin with IT's move from back-office support to strategic decision-maker. What should shipping prioritise as technology becomes more central to operations?

Raal argues resilience must take priority over efficiency. Geopolitical disruption, recovery planning, vendor lock-in and skills fade can make efficient technology choices dangerously brittle. Nick calls this a false choice: resilience is unavoidable, while the bigger decision is how organisations transform for AI.

That requires informed leadership, practical governance, measurable returns and capabilities beyond IT. The audience confronts shadow AI, sensitive data and digital twins built from decades of institutional knowledge. They finish by considering how technology transformation can strengthen resilience rather than undermine it.

EPISODE PARTNER

Better decisions start with better data. But across maritime, fleet data is still fragmented, inconsistently standardised and uneven in quality.

A weak data foundation leads to unreliable decisions. The same is true for AI and analytics: they're only as good as the data they're fed. That's why getting the fundamentals right — data standards, structure and governance — has to come before scaling innovation.

When leaders trust the data, they move faster, invest with more confidence and turn digital ambition into measurable outcomes. Build trusted data foundations with insight. Follow the link in the episode description. Discover data solutions from Insight.

Eman Abdalla joins Nick Chubb and Raal Harris to discuss building SeaThrew Marine, why ownership matters for safety and seafarer welfare, and what meaningful maritime transformation demands. The conversation spans operational accountability, career reinvention, decarbonisation, collaboration, incentives, technology, and the challenge of turning ambition into everyday practice at sea.

CHAPTERS

• 03:31 Why ownership changes accountability
• 07:46 Commercial viability and seafarer safety
• 09:30 Using technology to reduce risk
• 11:58 Courage, culture, and difficult decisions
• 16:03 Why transformation fails at adoption
• 18:51 Transforming operations at Cargill
• 23:26 Turning operations into a P&L enabler
• 29:59 Leaving the corporate identity behind
• 33:12 Designing a career with intention
• 41:03 Decarbonisation beyond future fuels
• 47:55 Fixing incentives across the value chain
• 51:50 What effective collaboration requires
• 56:18 What comes next for SeaThrew Marine

Eman Abdalla joins Nick and Raal to explain why founding SeaThrew Marine was the culmination of a career spanning chartering, operations, logistics, governance and strategy, and why her original ambition was not simply to advise shipowners, but to own and operate vessels herself.

In Emans’s view, influence only goes so far. Charterers, managers and operators can set standards and shape behaviour, but ultimate responsibility for safety, seafarer welfare and investment decisions still rests elsewhere. Her aim is to build a business where commercial performance and operational accountability sit in the same place.

The conversation moves into the practical meaning of transformation. Eman argues that technology should do more than optimise fuel consumption: drones, better data, AI and redesigned processes should also reduce risk for seafarers and improve the quality of everyday decisions.

She also reflects on her time at Cargill, including the work of repositioning operations from a perceived cost centre into a function that protects and enables P&L. That required trust, stronger communication, talent development and a clear link between organisational values and daily decision-making.

The discussion then turns to career identity and Eman’s decision to leave the security and visibility of a major corporate role. She describes the vulnerability of separating her own professional identity from a large company name, alongside the freedom to pursue board work, entrepreneurship and problems where she believes she can have a direct impact.

Finally, the conversation examines shipping’s decarbonisation challenge. Eman argues that uncertainty over future fuels cannot become an excuse for ignoring operational efficiency today. Better voyage planning, port coordination, contractual incentives and data sharing could cut avoidable emissions now, but only if owners, charterers, ports, cargo interests and operators stop optimising their individual piece of the system in isolation.

EPISODE PARTNER

Compliance in maritime is too often treated as a constraint. Done properly, it's the foundation for better operational performance.

The real barrier isn't the regulation — it's fragmented data and inconsistent standards, which make compliance manual, slow and reactive. Standardise the data and strengthen the governance, and compliance starts improving data quality and reducing inefficiency across the fleet, instead of just sitting on top of it.

Compliance isn't the anchor holding the fleet back. It's the keel that keeps it stable — and lets you move faster with more confidence.

Build compliance into every workflow with Insight.