Doosan Robotics to develop GPT-based collaborative robots

Doosan Robotics, a subsidiary of South Korea's Doosan Group specializing in robot solutions, is venturing into the development of collaborative robot solutions using AI-based GPT (generative pre-trained transformer) technology to enhance its software capabilities.

Doosan Robotics announced on Thursday that it has entered into a business agreement with Microsoft and Doosan Digital Innovation to develop a GPT-based robot control system" utilizing Microsoft's Azure OpenAI service. Azure OpenAI provides cloud services that include cutting-edge open AI systems, including GPT.

Doosan Robotics plans to apply GPT to its collaborative robots, enabling them to autonomously correct errors and perform tasks. Once the solution is developed, programming time will be reduced, leading to improved operational efficiency and utility.

For example, in the past, if an order included both ramen and a fried dish, specialized collaborative robots for each menu would work separately or prepare the two items sequentially. To perform more than two types of cooking simultaneously, humans needed to directly program the detailed actions and sequence based on various scenarios, posing challenges in terms of time and technical complexity.

In contrast, with the solution being developed, the robots can learn the specific actions of each cooking process. Even when executing various types of cooking simultaneously, the robots will arrange and execute the optimal sequence of actions on their own.

Moreover, Doosan Robotics explained that the solution accumulates and utilizes a database of learned programming data by humans. This means that even when the menu changes, there is no need to start programming from scratch.

"The key to this GPT-based collaborative robot solution is enabling the robots to perform complex and diverse tasks while minimizing programming time," CEO of Doosan Robotics Ryu Jeong-hoon said. "When applied to the software platform 'Dart-Suite,' scheduled to be launched in the second half of the year, the usability and convenience of collaborative robots will be further enhanced."

Doosan Robotics plans to pilot the GPT-based collaborative robot solution in the food and beverage sector later this year and then expand its use to the manufacturing sector.

Write to Mi-Sun Kang at misunny@hankyung.com