what you are seeing is just the slag from the sub arc welding.... the robot just did a pass so the workers haven't had a chance to chip away the slag yet.... Its robotic welding, but still needs people to come in and chip/grind the slag away so you can NDE the welds..
The Chinese seems to utilize the robotic welders better than the west. They all have access to the same machines, but like they say, its how you use the tools lol. The failure rate on those robotic welders in some of the Chinese shops are sub 1%, even some Indian shops are getting sub 2%. They have alot higher failure rates in some of the shops in the US so they are left idle lol.
The key is getting the software tuned to the repetitive high volume work lol, like making loads of these turrets, or pipe/structural skids that are the same. Then you can figure out the kinks in the software and get the failure rate right down. If you try to fk around with it as if it is the same as a manual laborer then of course you are gonna have it stuff up alot...
And this is why you need expert opinion on such matters. Thank you.