Industrial Robots Focus on Workforce Training... Service Robots Aim for Investment Attraction 'Two-Track Strategy' [Tech War, Birth of Advanced Nations]

Expert Diagnosis... Challenges of the Korean Robot Industry

Manufacturing process robot used in small and medium-sized enterprises. (Photo by Asia Economy DB)

[Asia Economy Reporter Moon Chaeseok] According to robot experts, South Korea ranks 4th in the world in both industrial and service robot technology levels. Experts advise that to achieve the Yoon Suk-yeol administration's declared dream of becoming a 'top 3 global power,' a 'two-track' development strategy should be employed: 'human resource development for industrial robots and business model discovery and investment attraction for service robots.'

According to the robotics industry on the 27th, as of this year, Japan is considered the strongest country in the industrial robot market, while the United States leads in service robots. The ranking for industrial robots is Japan → Germany → United States → South Korea, and for service robots, it is United States → Japan → Germany → South Korea.

Notably, the number of workers related to robots has recently been decreasing. Most of the reduced workforce consists of industrial robot personnel such as manufacturing software (SW). Manufacturing robots decreased by 2.8%, and robots for parts and SW decreased by 3.1%. Out of a total of 30,786 workers, 13,718 (44.6%) are in robot parts and SW, and 11,425 (37.1%) are in manufacturing, meaning that industrial robot workers make up the majority, making human resource development urgent.

There is a particularly strong call for the urgent cultivation of control SW engineers desired by industrial sites. It is necessary to significantly increase practitioners who create customized robot products and services according to the demands of client companies (mainly large corporations). A large influx of control SW talent into small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) specializing in robot SI (system integration) is essential to solidify the domestic industrial robot industry ecosystem.

It is not easy. An official familiar with government policies said, "To innovate the cultivation of control SW engineers at this level, it would require a scale that includes development plans within the government's 'Basic Robot Plan.'" There is also advice that when the government nurtures talent, it should not be in the form of 'increasing the budget and cultivating a certain number of people over several years,' but rather consider business models that induce investment from large corporations so that companies can expand investment and continue to nurture talent.

There is also growing emphasis on focusing on attracting corporate investment for service robots, as the industry is growing rapidly. The most successful model developed by companies in service robots is the 'cleaning robot,' which has been popular for over 10 years, and currently, 'serving robots' are also becoming widespread. According to the International Federation of Robotics (IFR) and others, the annual average growth rate of the service robot industry is about 16%. Market research firm MarketsandMarkets forecasts that the global delivery service robot market will grow from approximately 251.7 billion KRW last year to about 50 trillion KRW by 2030.

Since regulatory improvement is essential for the development of the robot industry, there is increasing demand for the Regulatory Reform Committee to adopt a method of quickly 'weeding out' regulations by issue. Laws such as the Road Traffic Act (prohibiting robots on sidewalks) and the Personal Information Protection Act (banning camera-based autonomous robots) should not be resolved all at once by the Presidential Regulatory Innovation Strategy Meeting or the political sphere, but rather the Regulatory Reform Committee should revise each detail step by step to better reflect stakeholders' opinions and avoid overlapping regulations. A robot policy expert said, "Members must participate together in the process of resolving issues to change the patchwork practice of receiving a regulatory sandbox permit once and barely surviving for two years."

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