South Korea's SK AX Launches Manufacturing Robot Replacement Business, Aiming to Build Autonomous Factories

en.Wedoany.com Reported - South Korea's SK AX has officially announced the launch of its manufacturing robot replacement (RX) business, which covers the entire process from robot introduction to operation on the manufacturing floor. The goal is to combine digital twins with physical artificial intelligence (AI) to create autonomous factories capable of independent judgment and movement.

On the 9th, SK AX stated that it will officially roll out the "Manufacturing RX Full-Stack Service," which supports manufacturing companies in innovating their robot-based operations. Currently, the manufacturing industry is expanding the adoption of robots to address labor shortages and declining productivity. However, due to various variables such as interference between equipment, logistics bottlenecks, and conflicts in worker movement paths, some cases have failed to achieve expected results. Particularly in complex manufacturing environments like semiconductors and shipbuilding, stable operation is limited when relying solely on existing rule-based automation.

The core of this service lies in achieving an autonomous manufacturing environment by combining digital twins, physical AI, and heterogeneous robot integration and control technologies. In the digital twin phase, the actual factory's equipment layout, worker movement paths, material flow, and process conditions are replicated in a virtual space. Before robot deployment, thousands of operational scenarios are repeatedly verified, analyzing bottleneck zones, collision possibilities, quality changes, charging schedules, and other factors in advance to derive optimal operational plans. Robots deployed on-site utilize physical AI based on the VLA model (Vision-Language-Action), enabling them to see, understand, and act, autonomously recognizing and judging environmental changes or unexpected obstacles, and proactively adjusting their work methods. This improves operational precision and continuity in unstructured manufacturing environments. During the factory operation phase, a "heterogeneous robot integration and control system" is provided, incorporating robots from different manufacturers (such as autonomous mobile robots AMRs, collaborative robots, humanoid robots, etc.) into a single operational framework. This system links with existing manufacturing systems like the Manufacturing Execution System (MES), reflecting process anomalies or delays in real time, and optimizing robot work instructions and movement paths.

Currently, SK AX is validating empirical models related to digital twins and robot integration control in the semiconductor industry, and expanding applications to the shipbuilding industry. SK AX stated that it will subsequently extend this service to more manufacturing sectors to support the transformation to autonomous factories. Kim Kwang-soo, head of SK AX's manufacturing service division, pointed out that the key to manufacturing RX is not simply purchasing hardware, but ensuring the operational capability for robots to operate stably on the actual production floor and connect with the entire factory. He added that the company, based on its capabilities in digital twins, physical AI, and heterogeneous robot integration control, aims to help customer factories evolve into non-stop autonomous factories.