“Robot” … Gyeongbuk Province Initiates Growth Engine Through Safety, Underwater, Agriculture, and Education Sectors, Creating ‘Robot Industry Ecosystem’ via Demonstration Infrastructure

Pohang ... Safety Robot and Underwater Robot Complex Demonstration Center

Andong ... Agricultural Robot Demonstration Center, Gumi ... Robot Vocational Innovation Center

Agricultural Robot Demonstration Center.

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters, Reporter Kim Gwi-yeol] Recently, due to the global ‘COVID-19’ pandemic, contactless and automation technologies are being applied across all social and daily life sectors, creating an opportunity for a major leap forward in the robotics industry in manufacturing and service fields.

Accordingly, Gyeongbuk is striving to foster a full-cycle robotics industry (research → demonstration → commercialization) through the existing safety, underwater, and agricultural robot demonstration centers, and to create an original robotics industry ecosystem by cultivating specialized personnel in robot utilization through the establishment of a Robot Vocational Innovation Center.

Gyeongbuk Province has achieved results that secure a leading position in the underwater construction robot field by advancing the performance of underwater construction robots and providing on-site support as part of the commercialization (phase 2) project following the underwater construction robot technology development project (phase 1).

Also, ‘URI-T,’ one of the three types of underwater construction robots, was selected as one of the ‘Top 100 National R&D Achievements of 2021’ by the Ministry of Science and ICT.

URI-T (Underwater Robot It’s Trencher) refers to a medium-duty underwater robot.

The National Safety Robot Project is promoting the development of advanced safety robots for disaster response deployed in disaster sites difficult for humans to access, and the creation of a safety robot demonstration test complex. Currently, it is advancing commercialization through repeated integrated experiments to improve product completeness and demonstration events.

The northern region of Gyeongbuk, centered on Andong, is also building a demonstration research center for agricultural robot technology development.

To prepare for labor shortages and productivity decline due to aging, the development of advanced intelligent farmbots with variable mechanisms applicable to various farming environments will play a leading role in the future of Korea’s advanced agriculture.

The Robot Vocational Innovation Center project, scheduled to open in October this year, aims to train robot operators and coordinators, who will be future promising jobs, and is expected to become a foothold for cultivating specialized personnel in the future robotics industry.

Robot operators are responsible for robot operation, system management, and periodic maintenance, while robot coordinators plan, design, and install robot-based production lines according to on-site demand.

Accordingly, Gyeongbuk Province has entered the 2022 Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs public project to establish a robotics industry ecosystem foundation.

Projects selected and underway include the smart agricultural product distribution and storage technology development project, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy public project, the development of a remote inspection robot system for cableway facilities such as wire ropes and pulley devices, and the development of human-robot collaborative dismantling technology for recycling multi-variety EV waste battery packs.

Also, in 2023, Daegu and Gyeongbuk were selected for the Ministry of Industry’s smart specialization infrastructure construction project as a super-regional cooperation task to build a smart transport and logistics AMR (autonomous mobile robot) industry promotion super-regional cooperation platform.

Through the ‘Gyeongbuk Robotics Industry Development Plan Establishment Research Service’ commissioned in April this year, Gyeongbuk plans to draw a blueprint for creating a robotics industry ecosystem that can cluster ‘R&D institutions ? demonstration infrastructure ? robotics specialized companies ? robotics service companies’ by establishing a basic plan for the Gyeongbuk robotics industry aligned with government policies, discovering industrial tasks where Gyeongbuk has competitiveness such as agriculture, underwater, and safety, and fostering and attracting local robotics companies.

Jang Sang-gil, Director of the Provincial Science and Industry Bureau, said, “Gyeongbuk has long selected and led policies to foster the robotics industry as a future promising industry, and the three core areas of safety, underwater, and agriculture are at the highest level domestically in terms of technology and infrastructure. We plan to secure the highest level of business capabilities in Korea through the convergence of artificial intelligence and robotics, and based on this, create a unique robotics industry ecosystem exclusive to Gyeongbuk.”