LS Electric deploys robotic dogs to drive smart factory automation in Busan

Korean power equipment and industrial automation solution provider LS Electric said Tuesday it has put two of Boston Dynamics' four-legged Spot robots into regular operation at its Busan plant, using them to monitor production equipment and support quality and safety management as part of a broader smart factory push. The company worked with Hyundai Autoever, a systems integration affiliate of Hyundai Motor Group, for a roughly two-month trial run starting in July before formally deploying the two robots. The Busan plant is LS Electric's main production site for ultrahigh-voltage transformers, a market seeing rising global demand as investment in AI data centers and power grids accelerates. The company said Spot will help build a predictive maintenance system that flags equipment problems before they cause production delays. The robots are being used to monitor vapor phase drying, a core part of transformer manufacturing in which components are dried in a vacuum chamber. Spot's onboard thermal camera checks chamber door seals and detects heat leaks without physical contact, while sensor