‘Heavy Snow, Polar Night, Strong Winds’: Government Ministries Joint Demonstration for Extreme Area Development

Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries, Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, and Ministry of Science and ICT Developing Specialized Technologies

Promoting Core IoT and Robotics Technologies for Exploration and Development

KIOST Confirms Operati

An integrated demonstration of the extreme environment development exploration system, involving multiple government ministries and agencies, will be held.

The Korea Institute of Ocean Science and Technology (KIOST, President Kang Do-hyung), together with the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries (Minister Cho Seung-hwan), the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (Minister Lee Chang-yang), and the Ministry of Science and ICT (Minister Lee Jong-ho), announced that on the 26th at 2 p.m., they will hold a multi-minister integrated demonstration of the ‘Extreme Environment Development and Exploration Cooperative Mobile System Technology Development Project’ at the Safety Robot Demonstration Center of the Korea Institute of Robot Convergence in Pohang, Gyeongbuk.

This demonstration is a preliminary inspection in preparation for the field verification test of mobile systems for extreme environment development and exploration to be conducted in Antarctica starting this November. The integrated system implementation and interworking of each ministry will be showcased through the linkage demonstration of observation stations, control points, and mobile robots at a domestic testbed.

The demonstration sequence will proceed in the order of the Ministry of Science and ICT, the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries, and the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. First, KIOST will verify whether the data communication network operates smoothly in extreme environments by connecting a data transmission and reception system from the Safety Robot Demonstration Center to Samsa Marine Park, about 26 km away, to confirm long-distance communication capability.

Next, the Korea Polar Research Institute (KOPRI) will demonstrate the accurate operation of weather and seismic data collection and monitoring at the observation station installed at the demonstration site. Finally, the Korea Institute of Robot Convergence (KIRO) will verify whether robots properly perform virtual crevasse exploration and other tasks.

This project has been jointly conducted by the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, and the Ministry of Science and ICT since 2021, with the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries taking the lead. The Korea Institute of Marine Science and Technology Promotion (President Oh Un-yeol) is in charge of overall management. KIOST, KOPRI, and KIRO are participating in this project, which is scheduled to be supported for five years until 2025.

The project aims to develop communication technology, observation and information processing technology, exploration robot systems, and operation technology that overcome extreme environments, in response to the need for technological independence such as operation in extreme environments, observation and exploration, resource acquisition, material transportation, and establishment of extreme environment technology testbeds.

Extreme environments hold scientifically important value related to global issues such as climate change and sea-level rise, and they also serve as an opportunity to develop future extreme technologies that contribute to the nation. As major countries actively develop new technologies specialized for extreme environments, South Korea also needs to prepare for future new industries.

President Kang Do-hyung said, “It is essential to develop core technologies such as communication and robots suitable for the field to explore unknown areas like extreme environments,” adding, “KIOST will actively participate in cross-ministerial cooperation to strengthen practical research to increase the commercial and economic utilization potential of Antarctic and Arctic resources.”

Technology for inter-agency collaboration among government ministries.

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