The South Korean government plans to combine the country's artificial intelligence and manufacturing capabilities to build a world-class national humanoid robot within three years. To that end, it will launch the "Next-X Humanoid Challenge" next year for products developed domestically.
The Ministry of Science and ICT unveiled the plan on the 25th at a meeting held to gather feedback on the K-Moonshot AI Humanoid Mission Roadmap at the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) in Seongbuk-gu, Seoul.
The goal is to secure a world-class national K-Humanoid platform within three years by bringing together the capabilities of industry, academia and research institutes, spanning everything from research and development of core technologies such as AI models and key components to demonstration and mass production.
The Next-X Humanoid Challenge is a program that selects candidates through an open contest and evaluation of humanoid robots developed in Korea, supports their development, and then chooses a final national-level humanoid platform.
At the meeting, Program Director Yeo Jun-koo, who oversees the mission, presented the draft humanoid mission roadmap, and a ceremony was held to appoint members of the Humanoid Mission Steering Committee. The discussion covered developing core source technologies for humanoids and securing data, laying the groundwork for cooperation among industry, academia and research institutes, and linking research achievements to industrialization and global expansion.
"The next big wave to follow AI will be physical intelligence that decides and moves on its own in the physical world, and the humanoid is the core platform for it," Yeo said. "To respond to the national crisis of population decline and to secure the country's future competitiveness, we must foster a technologically sovereign K-Humanoid as a national strategic asset."
The Ministry of Science and ICT said it will refine the roadmap through the meeting and present it as an agenda item at the Science and Technology Ministers' Meeting next month.
