S.Korea’s Doosan to supply robots to Rockwell Automation

South Korea’s plant and machinery powerhouse Doosan Group has joined hands with North America’s top industrial automation solution provider Rockwell Automation Inc. to expand its market share in the rapidly growing global collaborative robot sector amid surging demand for digital transformation.

Doosan said on Sunday it signed a memorandum of understanding with Rockwell for their partnership on April 25 in Washington, D.C. when South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and his delegation were on a state visit in the US.

“The collaboration with global industrial automation leader Rockwell is expected to diversify solutions related to collaborative robots and increase opportunities for supplies of those robots,” said the group holding company Doosan Corp. President Moon Hongsung in a statement.

EXCLUSIVE SUPPLY DEAL

Doosan Robotics Inc., the holding company's subsidiary, is set to exclusively supply collaborative robots to Rockwell, which will be used for the US partner’s manufacturing operations such as palletizing, welding, machine-tending, assembling and inspecting, according to the South Korean firm.

The Milwaukee, Wisconsin-based company plans to provide Doosan with hardware and software for manufacturing automation in various industries such as the semiconductor, automobile and bio sectors.

The two companies aim to jointly develop a collaborative robot solution for smart factories, which will be applied to Doosan’s global production facilities, while actively cooperating to sell robots to Rockwell’s customers and win more orders.

“We will develop the solution into a new business opportunity for both Doosan and Rockwell by applying it not only to Doosan but also to various plants to prove its effectiveness,” Moon said.

The group is seeking its future growth engines from the robot and semiconductor sectors as the conglomerate has been working on digital transformation. Doosan Robotics, which has been dominating the South Korean collaborative robot sector since 2018, ranks No. 5 in the global market.

Write to Hyung-Kyu Kim at khk@hankyung.com
 
Jongwoo Cheon edited this article.