Robots boost speed and precision in Huanggang Port construction

The new Huanggang Port, which officially opened on Oct. 12, is the world’s largest single-building land port and the only 24-hour passenger clearance point between Shenzhen and Hong Kong. Its steel structure required 170,000 metric tons of steel — equivalent to the weight of 23 Eiffel Towers. The scale of the project posed major challenges for conventional construction methods.

A team of robots developed by Pingshan-based China Construction Science and Industry Intelligent Technology (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd. played a key role in the project. The team comprised eight flexible welding robots and two high-power laser rust-removal robots.

The new Huanggang Port. Photo from Xinhua

A robot developed by China Construction Science and Industry Intelligent Technology (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd. Photo from the company

Each welding robot weighs less than 10 kilograms, allowing one worker to operate three at a time. The robots weld three times faster than human workers, with errors kept within 1 millimeter and inspection pass rates nearing 100%. The laser rust-removal robots work six times faster than traditional angle grinders and produce no dust or waste, meeting the project’s environmental requirements.

“During the summer, the heat made outdoor welding impossible from 10:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. But the robots could work around the clock, helping us make up for lost time,” said a steel-structure engineer working on the project.

Founded in Pingshan District in June 2025, the company has benefited from the district’s comprehensive industrial ecosystem. When it encountered technical challenges in developing and applying industrial HarmonyOS, Pingshan quickly connected the company with experts from Shenzhen Technology University. This led to a “door-to-door” partnership between industry, academia and research institutions, accelerating collaboration on key algorithms and system adaptation.

The company has since developed an architecture comprising “one industrial internet platform, multiple AI agent applications and various intelligent terminal devices.” Its mobile “smart factory” workshop uses AI to automatically plan work routes, applies industrial big data for predictive maintenance, and enables full-lifecycle management from order placement to delivery.