Doosan Robotics to Develop 'Physical AI' Collaborative Robots with Domestic AI Semiconductors

Two National Projects Selected; Total R&D Budget of 98.9 Billion Won

Developing Self-Reliant Collaborative Robots Without Cloud Dependency

Expanding Nuclear Welding Automation to Shipbuilding and Defense Industries

Doosan Robotics is launching the development of collaborative robots and intelligent welding solutions equipped with domestically produced artificial intelligence (AI) semiconductors.

Doosan CI.

On October 6, Doosan Robotics announced that two proposals from the “K-On-Device AI Semiconductor Technology Development Project” and the “Robot Industry Technology Development Project,” overseen by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and the Korea Institute for Advancement of Technology, have been selected as national projects. The combined research and development budget for the two projects is approximately 98.9 billion won, with about 68.1 billion won of government funding.

The first project aims to develop next-generation collaborative robots capable of perception, judgment, and control on their own, without the need for external PCs or cloud systems. The plan is to integrate domestically manufactured AI system semiconductors with an AI-dedicated processing unit (NPU) and communication/control features, and embed them into collaborative robots.

Based on this approach, Doosan Robotics plans to develop three types of collaborative robots with payload capacities of 5kg, 10kg, and 20kg, as well as industrial humanoids capable of dual-arm operations and omnidirectional movement. The goal is to commercialize these as standard models starting in 2031, after field trials and obtaining international safety certifications.

The second project focuses on automating complex welding tasks by combining AI and digital twin technology within collaborative robots. This involves the robot using a camera to recognize workpieces and generating welding paths by learning from the actions of skilled workers.

Demonstrations will take place at Doosan Enerbility’s Nuclear Center. Initial applications will cover tack welding, preheating, and welding processes for nuclear power equipment manufacturing, followed by expansion into shipbuilding, plant engineering, defense, and other sectors.

Through these two projects, Doosan Robotics aims to establish a “Korean-style physical AI collaborative robot integration platform” that combines AI semiconductors, software, and robot hardware.

Inwon Park, CEO of Doosan Robotics, stated, “We will develop a physical AI collaborative robot that not only combines on-device AI semiconductors and our proprietary collaborative robot platform, but is also capable of learning and replicating the skills of expert technicians.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.