Boston Dynamics' Spot put to work

Busan facility, recently expanded, chosen as pilot site

Monitors ultra-high-voltage transformer processes and test equipment

LS Electric Chairman Koo Ja-kyun inspects the operation of Spot, a quadruped walking robot, at the company's Busan plant. [LS Electric]
LS Electric Chairman Koo Ja-kyun inspects the operation of Spot, a quadruped walking robot, at the company's Busan plant. [LS Electric]

LS Electric said Tuesday it has deployed Spot, a quadruped walking robot made by Boston Dynamics, at its Busan plant.

The company has been working with Hyundai Autoever, a robot systems integration specialist, since July, completing roughly two months of trial operations at the Busan facility before putting two Spot units into full service.

The Busan plant is LS Electric's primary production site for ultra-high-voltage transformers, and output there has surged on rising demand driven by growing investment in AI data centers and power grid infrastructure. The company plans to use Spot to conduct real-time facility inspections and predict equipment failures in advance, strengthening production stability and quality competitiveness.

Spot will continuously monitor equipment conditions throughout the vacuum pressure drying process — a critical step in ultra-high-voltage transformer manufacturing — to minimize production disruptions.

The robot also autonomously patrols the production floor, using AI-based visual inspection technology to monitor the operating status of temperature- and humidity-controlled equipment while automatically collecting temperature and humidity data through a newly developed measurement system. This enables the company to capture environmental data even from blind spots, improving the accuracy of process environment management.

LS Electric plans to use the accumulated data to establish optimal production conditions.

Spot will also monitor test equipment for abnormal appearances, unusual noises and heat generation. The company will build a predictive maintenance framework covering key utility equipment at the plant, including motors, coolers, pumps, chillers and generators.

In addition, Spot will patrol areas restricted to workers and the vicinity of hazardous equipment to check for potential risks, while automating repetitive patrol duties on the floor to improve both operational efficiency and safety.

LS Electric plans to build an AI analysis model using operational data gathered at the Busan plant, then expand the program to major production sites at home and abroad.

Over the medium to long term, the company aims to establish a walking-robot-based smart patrol system across all its plants and develop a digital manufacturing platform that integrates production, quality and safety data under unified management.

"We plan to actively integrate AI and robot technology into our manufacturing operations to secure competitiveness in quality, price and delivery," a company official said. "We will accelerate the digital transformation of all our plants and build world-class smart manufacturing capabilities."


keg@heraldcorp.com