LS Electric Unleashes a Quadruped Robot at Its Transformer Plant
LS Electric announced on the 22nd that it has introduced Boston Dynamics' quadruped walking robot "Spot" at its Busan site to upgrade its production equipment monitoring, quality control, and safety management systems. Starting that day, Spot is being used to build an AI-based predictive maintenance system at the Busan site, the company's ultra-high-voltage transformer production base. Predictive maintenance is an approach that identifies early signs of abnormality before equipment breaks down. After roughly two months of trial operation beginning in July with robot system integration specialist HD Hyundai AutoEver, LS Electric is now officially operating two Spot units.
The Busan site is LS Electric's key production base for ultra-high-voltage transformers, where demand and production volumes for transformers are rising rapidly on the back of expanding AI data center and power grid investments. In response, the company completed a second production building last year, tripling its production capacity from an annual 200 billion won to 600 billion won, and is building an equipment predictive maintenance system using Spot.
Spot patrols the plant, collecting temperature, noise, and vibration data from equipment to detect early signs of abnormality. It is initially deployed to manage the vacuum pressure drying (VPD) facility, a core process in ultra-high-voltage transformer production. Using thermal imaging cameras, it non-invasively inspects the VPD chamber doors for sealing defects and heat leakage, and gathers heat, noise, and vibration data from vacuum pumps, motors, and control panels.
The robot is also used for production environment management. Spot autonomously patrols the site, using AIVI (AI Visual Inspection) technology to check the operating conditions of temperature- and humidity-controlled facilities. It also patrols test equipment and utility facilities such as motors, coolers, pumps, chillers, and generators, checking for abnormal noise, heat, and vibration. The company plans to connect the collected data to an AI analysis system to create a framework that predicts equipment failures in advance.
For safety management, Spot patrols areas with restricted worker access and around hazardous equipment, inspecting for potential risk factors. The company aims to automate repetitive patrol tasks to enhance worker safety and operational efficiency.
Based on the operational data accumulated at the Busan site, LS Electric will build an AI analysis model and extend the system to its major production bases at home and abroad. Over the medium to long term, it plans to establish a robot-based smart patrol system across all of its sites and implement a digital manufacturing platform that integrates and manages production, quality, and safety data.
