KOSME Establishes U.S. Demonstration Hub for Global Innovation Regulatory Free Zone AI Robot Sector

Securing a Dedicated Demonstration Site for the Global Special Zone in Boston, USA

Full-Scale Support for Local Market Entry Begins

The Korea SMEs and Startups Agency (KOSME) announced on the 16th that, together with the Daegu Machinery Components Institute (DMI) and the Global Robot Cluster (GRC), it has established a local base at the Nerve Center in Boston, USA—a hub for robot demonstrations—to conduct advanced technology demonstrations in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) robots as part of the Global Innovation Regulatory Free Zone initiative.

The Global Innovation Regulatory Free Zone is a project supported by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, which has selected a total of seven zones since 2024. KOSME is responsible for operating the project as a specialized institution. The Global Special Zone is an advanced version of the existing Regulatory Free Zone, which supports demonstration exemptions for new technologies and industries in Korea. It selects specific regions and fields to provide support, enabling promising domestic companies to pursue overseas certification and demonstration activities.

On the 13th (local time), companies participating in the Global Special Zone are conducting AI robot demonstrations at the Nerve Center located in Boston, USA. Photo by Jungjin Gong

To support the global market entry of companies in the Daegu AI robot Global Special Zone, which was designated in May last year, KOSME, together with the Daegu Machinery Components Institute, the lead agency, has established an overseas demonstration hub at the Nerve Center in Boston. In particular, technical demonstrations involving the use of original video data from AI autonomous robots—which had faced legal restrictions in Korea—can now take place at this overseas base.

Currently, strict regulations under the Personal Information Protection Act in Korea limit the use of data such as images, behaviors, and locations of people collected by robots for AI training. However, in order to implement advanced features such as enabling autonomous robots to perceive complex crowd environments and predict unexpected pedestrian behavior, training with original data based on real people is essential. Accordingly, the project plans to conduct a detailed comparison of the performance of learning with original data versus pseudonymized information, and to verify the effectiveness of using original data for improving AI performance.

KOSME, the Daegu Machinery Components Institute, and the Global Robot Cluster, which has an extensive local demonstration network, will fully utilize the local demonstration sites starting with this overseas pilot. Ban Jeongsik, Director of Regional Innovation at KOSME, stated, "Securing data at overseas demonstration sites is a critical foundation for enhancing the global competitiveness of our AI robot companies. Based on the difficulties companies have encountered in expanding abroad, which were identified during this on-site inspection, we will prepare improvement measures and continuously provide aftercare to ensure that special zone companies can establish themselves stably in the North American market."

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