According to Yonhap News,

The Korean government will invest a total of KRW 52.3 billion in supporting technology development in the robot industry this year to foster the robot industry as a new growth engine.

On February 19, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE) announced that it will conduct 3 public competitions to support new projects as a follow-up measure to the 'Vision and Strategy of the High-Tech Robot Industry' announced last year.

In December last year, the government presented a mid-to long-term goal of nearly quadrupling the domestic robot market to more than KRW trillion, from KRW 5.6 trillion in 2021, through KRW 3 trillion investment by the public and private sectors by 2030.

As a follow-up measure to that strategy, the MOTIE made the first announcement today that it will receive applications for 17 projects (KRW 16.6 billion in total) in manufacturing robots, service robots, and robot parts through an integrated research support system by March.

In the manufacturing robot sector, it will support development of proprietary technology for robots capable of learning and autonomously performing complicated assembly tasks in cooperation with humans.

It will also support 14 manufacturing industries including auto parts, machinery, and defense industries for development of intelligent process models based on advance robots, which can be easily applied and distributed in the field.

The ministry also support development of robot technology that improves productivity by collaborating with disabled workers.

In the service robot sector, it supports development of telemedicine robots and technology development for robots capable of playing and assisting mealtime for childcare.

In addition, development of proprietary technology of 'humanoid robot' and development of robot parts, and software for AI are also eligible for support.

The MOTIE plans to sign an MOU and support budgeting in April after evaluation by the Korea Planning & Evaluation Institute of Industrial Technology (KEIT) for companies and organizations applied for the project by March.

The second notice for this project is scheduled for April, followed by the third one in July.

The MOTIE plans to devise the roadmap for R&D in the first half of this year to secure the competitiveness of eight key technologies for high-tech robots in accordance with the '4th Basic Plan for Intelligent Robots (2024-2028)' announced last month


dkkim@yna.co.kr
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Source: Yonhap News (February 19, 2024)

** This article was translated from Korean.