Abstract: There are a large number of complicate curved welds in the welding process of the cabin, deck and hull of large ships. Realizing automatic tracking of curved welds is an important research direction in the field of ship intelligent manufacturing. In order to fully understand the current domestic research status of curved weld tracking technology in China,the principle of seam tracking was introduced, the current research status of curved weld tracking technology based on visual sensing and arc sensing was emphatically analyzed, and typical application of curved weld tracking technology in industrial production was summarized. Finally, opinions were put forward on the future development trend of related technologies.