HII signs up to $900M agreement with Path Robotics, GrayMatter Robotics

Rove pairs Path Robotics’ Obsidian physical AI model with legged robot for autonomous welding beyond fixed cells. | Source: Path Robotics

Huntington Ingalls Industries, or HII, today announced long-term performance-based production agreements with GrayMatter Robotics and Path Robotics.

Under the agreements, HII intends to award up to $900 million in total shipbuilding work to Path Robotics and GrayMatter across seven years. Path Robotics provides robotic welding technology, while GrayMatter offers robotic sanding systems.

“We are committed to making generational investments to develop new shipbuilding capability and to expand capacity,” said Eric Chewning, executive vice president of maritime systems and corporate strategy at HII . “Together, we are defining a new approach to robotics in shipbuilding: automation that can adapt to extreme levels of complexity, mix, and size.”

Both companies are part of the High-Yield Production Robotics, or HYPR , program. Huntington Ingalls launched this program in April. Its goal is to accelerate advanced, adaptive automation in the fabrication process of both crewed and uncrewed naval platforms.

The performance-based production agreements are also part of the HYPR Program. The program includes collaboration and joint development frameworks that establish governance, program execution, and long-term operational alignment among the companies.

The funding is contingent on the two companies meeting clearly defined technology and manufacturing readiness, as well as performance milestones, said HII.

With the agreement, Huntington Ingalls said it plans to accelerate development and deployment of physical AI across U.S. Navy shipbuilding programs, including aircraft carriers, submarines, destroyers, amphibious ships, future frigates and unmanned surface vessels.

“For years, we’ve believed physical AI could fundamentally change manufacturing,” said Andy Lonsberry, co-founder and CEO of Path Robotics. “HYPR is a powerful validation of our vision – that physical AI can scale shipbuilding capacity in one of the world’s most demanding production environments.”

The agreements include two stages: a Navy-grade development stage and a delivery stage. In the development stage, both companies will partner with HII to develop, validate and qualify high-precision production techniques.

These can be applied across autonomous welding, grinding, blasting, painting, assembly, inspection and other fabrication processes. The companies will then integrate the techniques into an autonomous production line.