IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine - March 2013 - 100

agree, paid off handsomely with the
growth of Korea's telecommunications
and information technology
Korea offers a glimpse (IT) sectors.
of what a future wired M a n y h a v e
remarked that a
urban society might
visit to Korea
offers a firstlook like: networked
hand glimpse of
robots in almost every what a future
wired urban
home alongside boot
society might
camps to cure internet look like: networked robots
addiction.
in almost every
home alongside
boot camps to cure Internet addiction.
Korea is particularly well positioned
for a strategic push in robotics. With its
strong manufacturing, electronics, and
IT sectors ready to take advantage of
emerging robotics and automation
technologies, high-speed broadband
and wireless networks connecting most
households and public places, and a
well-educated public that embraces
new technologies, the conditions are
ideal for a robotics revolution to take
root in Korea. Some of the early investments in robotics are beginning to pay
off. The domestic market size for
industrial and service robots was estimated at US$2 billion for 2011-representing a 20% increase from 2010-and
Korea's world market share was estimated at between 10 and 15%. Exports
for 2009 ranged around US$100 million, with recent annual growth figures
estimated at between 10 and 20%.
Major Initiatives and Activities
The major centers of activity in
robotics are spread out over government and corporate research centers,
universities, and various private
enterprises. The first large-scale
robotics initiative in Korea was the
Center for Intelligent Robotics (CIR,

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IEEE ROBOTICS & AUTOMATION MAGAZINE

www.irobotics.re.kr) at the Korea
Institute of Science and Technology
(KIST). Established in 2003 with a
tenyear budget of US$90 million, the
CIR's focus is on developing the fundamental technologies that will provide an infrastructure for a future
robotics industry, e.g., design, actuation, sensing, manipulation, task
planning, and control.
The recently established Center for
Human-Centered Interaction for
Co-existence (CHIC, www.chic.re.kr) is
another long-term, government-funded
initiative-whereas CIR focused on
physical and lower-level issues, CHIC is
focused more on higher-level problems
in multimodal interfaces, human-robot
interaction, virtual environments, and
ambient intelligence.
In addition to coordinating the
CIR and CHIC centers, KIST also
has an active internal research unit
in neurocognitive, medical, and
rehabilitation robotics (bionics.kist.
re.kr). The Robotics Department at
the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (www.
etri.re.kr) focuses on network robot
and cognition technologies. The
Korea Atomic Energy Research
Institute (www.kaeri.re.kr) develops
robots for operation in nuclear reactors, w here as t he Agenc y for
Defense Development (www.add.
re.kr) is engaged in developing
defense and military robotics technologies. The Korea Institute of
Industrial Technology (eng.kitech.
re.kr) has developed several mobile
and humanoid robot platforms
intended for applications ranging
from household cleaning to entertainment, and also has an active
research group on wearable robots
and underwater robots.
The Open Platform for Robotic
Services (OPRoS, opros.or.kr) is
another major government-funded

March 2013

initiative launched in 2007 to
develop a component-based open
source platform for robotics software development. OPRoS offers an
environment for developing and
integrating components, monitoring
and debugging, simulation, and
execution on physical hardware,
with a repository for components
and proxy services as well as test
and verification.
Major universities active in robotics research include Seoul National
University, Korea University, and Hanyang University in Seoul, Sungkyunkwan University in Suwon, the Korea
Advanced Institute of Science and
Technology in Daejeon, and Pohang
University of Science and Technology
in Pohang. The Seoul Robotics High
School may be the first and only public high school in the world devoted to
robotics education.
Quite possibly another first of its
kind in the world, Robot Land, a
US$600 million theme park featuring
attractions and exhibitions, is (barring
further delays) scheduled to open in
Incheon sometime after 2015.
The major robotics societies in
Korea are the Korea Robotics Society
(www.kros.org) and the Institute of
Control, Robotics, and Systems (eng.
icros.org). Robot World (www.robotworld.or.kr), the largest robot-themed
exhibition and show bringing together
all the major companies and research
institutions in Korea, is held annually in
the fall.
Although the government's initial
plan to place a robot in every South
Korean household by 2020 may seem
overly ambitious, it is likely a safe bet
that Korea will continue to be in the
vanguard of robotics, offering a fascinating glimpse of a society in which
robots become a ubiquitous part of
everyday life.

http://www.irobotics.re.kr http://www.chic.re.kr http://www.re.kr http://etri.re.kr http://www.kaeri.re.kr http://www.kros.org http://www.icros.org http://www.robot http://www.add http://world.or.kr http://www.re.kr http://www.re.kr http://opros.or.kr

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine - March 2013