Seoul National University has launched a national research institute to study next-generation physical artificial intelligence (AI) and Robotics technologies. While focusing on developing technologies for everyday-life, wearable, and medical robots, it will also pursue commercialization of research outcomes and support startups.
Seoul National University said on the 18th that it held an opening ceremony for the "Seoul National University Robotics National Research Institute" at Haedong Institute of Advanced Engineering on the Gwanak campus.
The institute was established after being selected in June for the "2026 Basic Research Program National Research Lab (NRL 2.0)" by the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Science and ICT. The national research institute program is designed to provide long-term support to university-affiliated institutes to foster basic research hubs. Selected institutes will receive 10 billion won each year for 10 years.
About 80 participating and affiliated professors from various disciplines within Seoul National University will take part in research at the Seoul National University Robotics National Research Institute to carry out cross-disciplinary convergence studies. Seoul National University Hospital will also participate. It will support the development and testing of wearable and medical robots and serve as a clinical platform for training related research personnel and commercializing technologies.
There are three main research areas: everyday-life robots that assist daily living, wearable robots that support or augment human bodily functions, and medical robots that perform diagnosis and treatment inside the body.
One of the core research tasks is "distributed intelligence" technology. Moving away from a model in which a single central AI handles all decisions for a robot, the institute will develop an architecture in which each part of a robot processes the necessary information on its own and cooperates with a higher-level AI to operate.
The institute will also study modular reconfiguration technology and biomimicry that allow a robot's form and function to change according to its environment and mission. By combining distributed intelligence with physical intelligence that mimics the human sensory and motor nervous systems, the goal is to realize physical AI technologies that operate in real-world environments.
Seoul National University is also exploring ways to apply this research to social needs such as care related to aging and assistance with bodily functions. It plans to pursue joint research with overseas research institutes and global corporations such as Nvidia. It will also set up a separate organization to link research results to industry. The institute will establish an industry-academia startup support center to support technology commercialization and startups in the field of Robotics.