Cleanzine: your weekly cleaning and hygiene industry newsletter 18th April 2024 Issue no. 1110
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KT and Hyundai accelerate digital transformation with smart robots
KT Corp., South Korea's largest telecommunications company, has signed strategic cooperation and investment contracts with Hyundai Robotics and Hyundai Heavy Industries to speed up joint development of intelligent service robots including those for the cleaning and foodservice industries, technological research in autonomous driving, and smart factory solutions.
KT will undertake software development and applications related to intelligent service robots and autonomous driving, while Hyundai Robotics will be responsible for hardware development and manufacturing.
This is expected to lead to the introduction of intelligent robots that not only provide hotel amenities but also serve food and beverages at restaurants, and cleaning patrol robots loaded with cleaning and security functions.
For entry into the service robot market, the two parties also plan to develop collaborative robots for small factories and large franchise stores.
For a smart factory, KT will provide communication technology, cloud, ICT solutions, and related bundle products, while Hyundai Robotics will supply robots and relevant solutions. In particular, the combination of KT's smart factory solutions, dubbed ‘5G Factory Makers’, and Hyundai Robotics' Hyundai Robot Management System is expected to heighten smart factory process analysis, production management and predictive maintenance. The toolkits of both sides will also be applied jointly for smart hospitals and logistics.
Along with its equity participation in Hyundai Robotics, KT will seek an exchange of human resources to help refine elevation of Hyundai Robotics' competitiveness in robotics and smart factory.
The signing ceremony, held at the KT headquarters in central Seoul, was attended by KT president Ku Hyeonmo, Hyundai Heavy Industries’ senior executive vice president Chung Kisun and Hyundai Robotics CEO Seo Yoo-seong, and other senior executives.
"In the post-COVID 19 era, KT is prepared to contribute to strengthening the Republic of Korea's industrial competitiveness and the transformation of our nation's manufacturing industry, taking advantage of our 5G and AI capability in cooperation with Hyundai Heavy Industries Group," said KT’s Ku. "Beginning with Hyundai Heavy Industries Group, we will do our utmost to expand digital transformation in diverse areas."
Chung Kisun added: "Beyond mere production, the competitiveness of manufacturers will be determined in the future by the ability of individual businesses to read market trends and transform themselves. Through expansive business cooperation with KT, we believe that not only Hyundai Robotics but the entire Hyundai Heavy Industries Group will be able to achieve digital transformation and thereby improve our competitiveness as leading enterprises in the world."
Earlier this year, KT and Hyundai Robotics introduced ‘N Bot’, an upgrade from KT's second-generation GiGA Genie hotel robot in terms of both function and design.
25th June 2020