217 Billion KRW Invested in Robot R&D This Year... 1,700 Service Robots Distributed in Logistics and Care

Ministry of Industry Announces '2021 Intelligent Robot Implementation Plan'

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[Sejong=Asia Economy Reporter Joo Sang-don] The government plans to invest more than 210 billion KRW this year to initiate research and development aimed at solving social issues such as infectious disease spread and surging logistics volume, and to promote the distribution of over 1,700 robots.

On the 29th, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy held the Robot Industry Policy Deliberation Committee meeting in writing and announced that it reviewed and approved the '2021 Intelligent Robot Implementation Plan' and the '2021 Robot Industry Proactive Regulatory Innovation Roadmap Implementation Plan' containing these details.

First, the government will invest 217 billion KRW, a 54% increase from the previous year, in research and development and distribution of manufacturing and service robots, focusing on solving social problems caused by infectious disease spread and surging logistics volume, and will promote the distribution of more than 1,700 robots.

Among the 33 tasks in the robot industry regulatory innovation roadmap established last year, the first phase tasks (9 tasks) will proceed with regulatory improvements as originally planned by 2022, with 4 tasks including robot elevator boarding expected to be completed early within this year.

According to the Intelligent Robot Implementation Plan, the government plans to expand the development and distribution of robot-utilized standard process models to digitalize manufacturing sites in the manufacturing sector and to establish a private-sector-centered distribution base. The robot-utilized standard process model will be expanded beyond the existing root, textile, and food and beverage sectors to the aviation, shipbuilding, chemical, and bio-industries, and various private-sector-centered distribution expansion bases such as joint purchasing and rental will be established.

In the service sector, full-scale development and distribution of service robots will be promoted focusing on four promising services?logistics, care, medical, and wearable?and non-face-to-face service sectors. Robots for solving social problems such as logistics loading and unloading robots and infectious disease medical waste disposal robots will be developed, and more than 1,500 service robots will be distributed in fields such as logistics and care. In particular, service robot convergence demonstrations using multiple types and numbers of robots will be promoted targeting key locations closely related to citizens' daily lives, such as shopping malls.

Along with this, the government also announced regulatory improvement plans derived from the 'Robot Industry Proactive Regulatory Innovation Roadmap' established in October last year. Among the 9 tasks in the first phase (to be completed in 2022), 4 tasks including collaborative robots (fixed type) will be completed early this year, and 5 tasks such as outdoor delivery robots (weight limit relaxation for urban park passage), parking robots (safety standards for application in mechanical parking lots), and electric vehicle charging robots (safety standards) will be completed by next year.

Seong Yun-mo, Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy, said, "New industries like robots require rapid policy implementation due to the fast pace of technological advancement," adding, "We will support demonstrations of various business models to activate new service industries utilizing robots and ensure timely regulatory improvements."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.