AI Autonomous Manufacturing Plants to Expand Nationwide This Year

The AI autonomous manufacturing project which integrates robots and equipment into manufacturing processes based on artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance and automate production in key industries is set to be fully implemented. The Ministry of Trade Industry and Energy (hereafter referred to as MOTIE) announced that it has begun the selection process for the Top 10 AI Autonomous Manufacturing Projects a core policy of the AI Autonomous Manufacturing Strategy 1.0 announced last month (May 8).

Since the announcement of the AI Autonomous Manufacturing Strategy 1.0 (May 8) MOTIE has unofficially identified over 40 potential projects that could become the leading initiatives through field surveys and meetings with local governments and research institutes. These candidate projects cover advanced and key industries representing Korea including semiconductors automobiles shipbuilding secondary batteries machinery displays steel textiles and home appliances. Based on these findings MOTIE officially began soliciting proposals on June 5 with plans to finalize the Top 10 projects through a series of steps: official proposal solicitation (until the end of June) project announcement (July) and final evaluation (August). During this process MOTIE will launch the AI Autonomous Manufacturing Alliance in July and reveal the list of candidate projects.

For the selected projects MOTIE plans to provide tailored support for the development and implementation of optimized software (industrial AI) hardware (robots) and integrated systems (SI) for each company. This year alone more than 10 billion KRW (approximately 100 million USD) will be allocated for this purpose. Based on this year’s outcomes MOTIE aims to expand the number of supported projects to over 200 by 2028.

In addition on June 17 MOTIE held a meeting with 12 research institutes to lead the expansion of AI autonomous manufacturing. During the meeting MOTIE urged active participation and close cooperation among the research institutes exchanging various ideas for the successful dissemination of AI autonomous manufacturing. A MOTIE official stated “Innovating the production function of our manufacturing industry through AI autonomous manufacturing is not a choice but a necessity to overcome challenges such as demographic changes and declining productivity. We will vigorously pursue the leading projects to spearhead the transformation of Korea’s manufacturing industry.”