Daedong and POSCO sign MOU to develop robots deployed on missions to special environments
Daedong and POSCO sign MOU to develop robots deployed on missions to special environments
- Daedong to work with POSCO to develop a robot that can operate autonomously and collect fallen ore and improve the overall working environment inside steel mills until 2025
- Both companies to design a robot inspired by a skid steer loader, a piece of small construction equipment, and also snow blower and cleaning attachments for robots
- Daedong will research new mobility solutions to move and transport steel mill workers using the company’s robots and mobility vehicles
Daedong, which announced its entry into the robotics industry earlier this year, is ready to work with POSCO to develop robots that can perform missions in special environments within steel mills.
Daedong (Co-CEOs Jun-sik Kim and Won Yu-hyun) announced on September 4 that it signed a business agreement with POSLAB (Director Kim Ki-soo) to “develop robot platform technology for special environment missions” used to collect fallen ore and improve the overall working environment within steel mills.
Meanwhile, Daedong declared its vision as a future agricultural leading company back in 2020, and the company is accelerating its development of core technologies in automation, electrification, and intelligence for smart agricultural machinery, farm, and mobility solutions. Early this year, Daedong opened a new Robotics Center with KIRO to utilize these new technologies to make a real push into the robotics business in both agricultural and non-agricultural sectors. Using the Robotics Center, the company is developing “following robots” capable of transporting crops, agricultural robots for the entire cycle of crops such as tillage, seeding, and harvesting, and logistics delivery robots for indoor applications. Moreover, leveraging its technology and market insight established through its tractors and skid loaders used overseas as [1]GCE, Daedong established a collaborative relationship with POSCO to develop special environment mission robots suited to industrial facilities.
With its new MOU, Daedong plans to work with POSCO to develop mission robots suited to the working environment at steel mills by 2025. By 2024, Daedong wants to develop a remote-control mission robot and deploy it at POSCO's steel mills. This mission robot, jointly developed by Daedong and POSCO to replace the existing equipment used to remove fallen ore and waste at steel mills, will also collect big data on the steel mill’s working environment. Using this data, Daedong plans to develop autonomous mission robots that require minimal human input by 2025.
The special environment mission robot will likely be inspired by a skid steer loader, which is used to transport aggregates, soil, and plant piles. Moreover, taking inspiration from the tractor attachments, Daedong will develop a snow blower to remove snow and a cleaning blower that can help increase the value and utility of cleaning robots as well.
Daedong, together with POSCO, is also exploring a project to identify mobility solutions used to move workers and transport cargo within a steel mill. Together, the two companies are researching ways to customize and introduce Daedong products, such as electric scooters with replaceable batteries, autonomous driving mobility Low Speed Vehicles (LSVs), and delivery robots that are currently being promoted as part of the mobility business, to better suit the environment and conditions at steel mills.
Meanwhile, the MOU ceremony to kick start the development of robot platform technology for special environment missions was held at Daedong’s Daegu Factory (Nongong-eup, Dalseong-gun, Daegu) on September 1. A dozen officials from both companies, including Lee Jong-soon, (Head of Daedong’s Product Production and Development Division), Kim Ki-soo (Director of POSLAB), and Choi Yong-jun (Head of POSCO’s Robot Solutions Research Group) attended the event.
[1] What is Ground Care Equipment (GCE)? GCE is used at agricultural facilities and farms as well as home gardens for weeding, removing snow, moving hay, removing trees, etc. Purpose-built, including small tractors, lawnmowers, multi-purpose transport vehicles, and tractor attachments such as grapples and backhoes fall under the GCE category.