The drone and robot industries asked the government to ease transmission power limits on radio frequencies that block new-industry technology demonstrations and to address the shortage of public test beds.
The SME Ombudsman said on the 21st that, together with the Korea SMEs and Startups Agency (KOSME), it held an "S.O.S. Talk" at Robot Land in Seo District, Incheon, to hear on-site difficulties from Incheon-area drone and robot corporations.
S.O.S. Talk is an on-site roundtable jointly run by the SME Ombudsman and the Korea SMEs and Startups Agency (KOSME) since 2015.
Seventeen people attended the event, including Jeong Byeong-gyu, head of the Ombudsman Support Team, Ban Jeong-sik, regional growth director at the Korea SMEs and Startups Agency (KOSME), and representatives of Incheon-area small and medium-sized corporations. Kang Chang-bong, a senior committee member at the Korea Institute of Aviation Safety Technology (KIAST), and Professor Lee Byeong-seok of Soonchunhyang University also offered opinions.
Before the roundtable, Professor Lee Byeong-seok gave a lecture on the theme "Trends in Chinese drone technology," introducing the latest technology trends and market flows confirmed at the 2026 Shenzhen expo.
At the roundtable, drone transmission power limits came under scrutiny. Industry officials said it is difficult to test long-distance flight control or high-definition video transmission technologies because transmission power in the 2.4 GHz and 5.8 GHz bands, mainly used for drone control and video transmission, is limited to 10–25 mW or less.
Related corporations proposed that the government clarify the frequency and power standards applicable to industrial drones and ease power limits in controlled environments such as drone special deregulation zones.
The Ministry of Science and ICT advised that, with a license to establish a radio station, operators can use the drone-dedicated frequency band (5091–5150 MHz) at higher power. However, it said it would be difficult to uniformly raise power standards in unlicensed bands shared by many devices, such as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.
In the robotics field, a shortage of public demonstration spaces was raised. With Robot Land undergoing facility maintenance work, research and development schedules are being disrupted, they said, requesting an expansion of alternative public test beds that can be used during construction.
Since May, Incheon Metropolitan City has been operating an open logistics robot test bed using the Robot Tower and the robot research and development (R&D) center within Robot Land. It said it would improve the testing environment to reflect corporate demand. It also said that if test beds are expanded, it would consider running a dedicated support window.
Experts also agreed on the need for institutional improvements to resolve corporations' difficulties. Professor Lee Byeong-seok of Soonchunhyang University said, "Instead of giving the same answer for a decade that 'co-channel interference is a concern,' authorities need to spell out the specific risks so corporations can accept them."
Kang Chang-bong, a senior committee member at the Korea Institute of Aviation Safety Technology (KIAST), noted, "If you uniformly raise transmission power, it will come back as radio interference and complaints, so it is more realistic to designate areas with lower interference concerns and gradually expand the testing environment."