LG, POSCO team up for unmanned robot’s facility management

LG Electronics Inc. announced on Wednesday it conducted a demonstration project for unmanned facility management using an artificial intelligence (AI) autonomous robot in the underground electrical room of POSCO's Gwangyang No. 4 hot-rolled mill.

Equipped with cameras and LiDAR sensors, the robot completed its tasks independently for two days starting last Monday, without any intervention from human operators.

The robot utilizes information acquired from its sensors to more accurately perceive the surrounding environment, according to the company.

The robot patrolled an area exceeding the size of two soccer fields in the underground electrical room, navigating its path while avoiding drainage ditches. It conducted inspections of the operating status of equipment such as power cables, transformers, and reactors located throughout the electrical room, sending the results to the in-house control room.

The latest demonstration project is part of the business agreement for "Technology Development in the Fields of Robots, AI, and Communication (5G Dedicated Network)" signed by LG Electronics and POSCO Holdings Inc. in May.

LG Electronics and POSCO plan to share their respective smart factory technological capabilities through this collaboration. The two companies aim to expedite the creation of efficient and safe manufacturing sites through such cooperation.

"We will enhance our technological capabilities by validating smart factory technologies, including robots, AI, and communication, in various manufacturing sites," said  Kim Byoung-hoon, Chief Technology Officer of LG Electronics.

Write to Ik-Hwan Kim at lovepen@hankyung.com