The ‘Market Creating Robot Distribution Project’ carried out by the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Energy and the Korea Institute for Robot Industry Advancement (KIRIA) is playing its role as the driving force for domestic robot industry to enter global markets.

The project is the government sponsored program to construct the test bed for the robot products and services that are in commercialization phase, to verify them for commercial feasibility, and then facilitating actual demand. The project is mainly divided into the ‘department led’ project and the ‘idea hunt’ project. The department led project selects the programs that have national and public interest and can be utilized by public sector. The idea hunt project selects the programs that have large ripple effect of market creation and good export potential.

To help the project, KIRIA reviews the business plans submitted by robot industry and finalize the supported programs each year. The support for the programs and robot manufacturers with large ripple effect of market creation and the area of good export potential has been expanded. As the project support not only robot manufacturing test bed construction and operation but also marketing, it has been the driving for the domestic robot industry to enter the global markets. The robot manufacturers selected for the project are actively participating in exhibitions and export conferences in China, Europe, SE Asia and other regions to lay the foundation for overseas business.

The companies that were supported by the Market Creating Robot Distribution Project and have shown significant outcome in the overseas markets include Future Robot, Robotis and ISAN solution. The service robot manufacturer Future Robot signed a service robot supply contract worth USD 12 million with a local partner during the time of President Park Geun-hye’s visit to UAE in March 2015. Robotis sells the robot actuators to solidify its position as the robot specialist. The robot actuator features various functions of motor, decelerator, controller and communication device in a module. The bestselling product is in heavy demand all over the world. ISAN Solution exported the robot exhibition contents to China and Indonesia while Robomation cooperated with SK Telecom to export the educational smart robots to Latin America. Other companies such as Roborobo, Minirobot, Robotron and Robolink are also active in the overseas markets to increase the status of Korean robot industry.

The Market Creating Robot Distribution Project played a significant role for these robot companies to be recognized in the overseas markets. The outcome of the project between 2011 and 2015 clearly shows it. 427 businesses, academic institutes and research organizations participated in 86 programs during this period and demonstrated the effectiveness of robot distribution in 1084 areas. Of 1084 areas, 202 occurred in other countries. It also realized total sales of KRW 201.9 billion, and KRW 33.4 billion of it was export. Total of 68 patents including 18 foreign patents are pending and 46 patents have been granted. The project also created 1465 new jobs.

The Ministry of Industry, Trade and Energy and KIRIA will carry out the project in 2016 also. The government has budgeted KRW 9.45 billion on 16 programs. The programs selected for department led project in this year include ETRI (development of drone based item delivery system), KEPCO (aerial diagnosis of power facility using autonomous flying robot), Suwon City (operation of robot-based customized brain health program for the mild cognitive impaired and the elderly people), KERIS (promotion and proliferation of SW education utilizing robots).

The programs for idea hunt project include Helper Robotech Co., Ltd. (cylindrical paper pot sowing robot system), Varram System Co., Ltd. (home monitoring robot), AIRO Co., Ltd. (aquarium fish robot service), and P&S Mechanics (development of walk rehabilitation robot and clinical test bed in the US). Airobot plans to participate in ‘Design Tokyo’ in Japan, ‘GITEX’ in Dubai, and ‘IAAPA Attractions Expo 2016’ in the US while P& S Mechanics participated in ‘ISPRM 2016’ in Malaysia and ‘MEDIC 2016’ in Germany. These programs selected for this year are expected to raise the technical capability of domestic robot industry by a level and become the important driving force for entry into the overseas markets. KIRIA has the plan to select the programs that show the excellent outcome and link it with the government’s export support project. It is expected to accelerate entry of domestic robot industry into the foreign markets.