Strategic Partnership Signed and Investment Made
Aiming to Lead the Industrial AI Humanoid Robot Market
LG CNS is aiming to take the lead in the industrial artificial intelligence (AI) humanoid robot market as the era of physical AI dawns.
On June 17, LG CNS announced that it had signed a strategic partnership agreement and made an investment in Skild AI, a US-based AI robotics company, marking the first such collaboration in Korea. This investment was made through LG's corporate venture capital arm, LG Technology Ventures.
Physical AI is a technology that integrates robotics and AI, enabling AI to perceive its surroundings and take real-world actions through robots. It expands generative AI to allow interaction within physical spaces. Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia, cited this technology as a driver of the next industrial revolution at CES 2025, the world's largest electronics and IT exhibition, in February.
The core technology of Skild AI is the Robot Foundation Model (RFM), which serves as the "brain" that determines a robot's actions. The RFM is a general-purpose AI model that learns from large volumes of data, including the actions performed by robots and language, image, and video data collected from sensors, enabling robots to operate in a variety of environments. This model allows robots to autonomously explore, manipulate objects, and perform advanced tasks that involve interacting with their surroundings.
Through this collaboration, LG CNS plans to develop industrial AI humanoid robot solutions based on Skild AI's Robot Foundation Model. These solutions will be fine-tuned using data from manufacturing, logistics, and other industrial sites, supporting tasks that have traditionally been difficult for conventional robots. Fine-tuning refers to the process of further training a model with specific datasets tailored to a particular purpose, allowing it to be optimized for specialized tasks.
Previously, operating robots required developing and controlling separate models for each task, which consumed significant time and resources. However, the Robot Foundation Model enables rapid learning and autonomous operation using only photos or video data from industrial worksites.
Industrial AI humanoid robots can effectively perform repetitive and physically demanding tasks such as factory equipment monitoring and operation, product assembly, hazardous material handling, and picking and stacking items in logistics centers. In urban settings, they can also serve as service robots for elderly care and patrolling duties.
LG CNS plans to offer an "AI Humanoid Robot Integrated Service" to customers across various industrial sectors. This service will include Skild AI's Robot Foundation Model; LG CNS's proprietary integrated platform for robot control, management, and operation, as well as smart factory, logistics, and city solutions; and robot hardware. The hardware component will be developed in collaboration with robot manufacturing companies.
Lee Junho, Executive Director of the Smart Logistics & City Business Division at LG CNS, stated, "By combining Skild AI's Robot Foundation Model, a top global robot AI technology, with LG CNS's robot solution expertise, we aim to become the leading provider of intelligent AI robot services." He emphasized, "We will help customers make their operations more intelligent with AI humanoid robots and support them in achieving tangible business results."
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