Daedong pushing its robot business in 2024... Signs first robot contract with POSCO
Daedong pushing its robot business in 2024... Signs first robot contract with POSCO
- Daedong to start supplying field demonstration models in July 2025 as per its MOU on “Special Environment Mission Robot Development” signed with POSCO back in September
-. Company launching “Robot Mower” for gardening and “Autonomous Transport Follower Robot” for transporting loads, which completed testing overseas, in 2024
- Goal is to launch robots for field operations by 2025... Outlook is bright as the mechanization rate for field farming in Korea is set to increase by 77% in 2026...
Daedong, which announced its entry into the robot market early this year, is speeding up its distribution of robot products
Daedong (Co-CEOs Kim Jun-Sik and Won Yu-Hyun) announced on December 21 that it signed a contract with POSCO to supply a “Special Environment Mission Robot” to be deployed for collecting fallen ore in steel mills and improving the overall working environment in steel mills.
Daedong’s current focus is on ▲Smart Agricultural Machinery, ▲Smart Mobility, ▲Smart Farms, ▲Robotics, and ▲GME (Agricultural and Landscaping Equipment) as its five core future businesses. Among the five, the robotics division is developing special service robots for agricultural and non-agricultural applications, including ▲Multipurpose agricultural robots for agricultural work such as pest control and weeding, ▲Gardening robots, ▲Indoor and outdoor autonomous transport robots, ▲Chair robots for indoor and outdoor movement, ▲Special environment mission robots, and ▲Hospital service robots.
In a push to accelerate its robot business, Daedong recently established a new Robot Business Planning Headquarters under the Product Planning Division in a recent reorganization of the company, and will focus on distributing special service robots across various fields next year. First, the company’s “Robot Mower,” a gardening robot that has completed testing and verification in actual field environments in four European countries as well as Australia, will be launched in Europe and Australia early next year. This new Robot Mower is equipped with an AI-driven autonomous driving function and is a robot that freely moves and weeds within a designated area. In Europe, where houses are smaller than in North America, Robot Mowers could prove more effective as they allow for easy and convenient garden and yard maintenance.
Daedong’s “Special Environment Mission Robot” will be jointly developed with POSCO by July 2024 to produce a remote-controlled remote control robot for field demonstration purposes and deploy it to POSCO steel mills. This new robot is expected to replace existing equipment for the purpose of removing fallen ore at steel mills, and collect big data about the steel mill’s work environment, while removing fallen ore and waste in the workplace. Based on the findings, Daedong plans to develop autonomous mission robots requiring minimal human input by 2025.
Then, sometime in the third quarter of 2024, the company is hoping to launch an autonomous transport follower robot capable of transporting up to a load of 200kg using autonomous driving functions. Without user input, the robot will analyze its work environment and follow the user at a certain distance, stopping and turning when there is an obstacle. Then, the robot will autonomously move to a designated location according to the user's return command. This robot was tested in an actual use environment at an apple orchard in Pyeongchang, Gangwon-do, and mass production, as well as sales, will begin next year.
Daedong is also accelerating its development of some new robots. In terms of agricultural robots, the company plans to launch a multi-purpose management robot and weeding robot for fieldwork in 2025 after some extensive verification testing next year. Meanwhile, the Korean government aims to increase the field agriculture mechanization rate from 63% in 2022 to 77% in 2026. Accordingly, the market is expecting a rapid distribution of robots for field work in the near future, creating synergy with precision agriculture services that can achieve maximum harvest with minimum resources.
Moreover, in the hospital service robot field, Daedong signed a business agreement with Yeungnam University Medical Center (Director Kim Jong-yeon) this year, and plans to test various robots required by hospitals, such as hospital logistics and transport robots, smart chair robots, and patrol robots, in actual field environments. After successfully completing its demonstration at Yeungnam University Hospital, the company plans to enter the market by bundling robots required at hospitals both in Korea and abroad.
