The government will launch the "Next-X Humanoid Challenge" starting next year to select a national team–level platform by inviting and evaluating domestically developed Humanoid Robots.
The Ministry of Science and ICT on the 25th held a meeting to gather opinions on the "K-moonshot artificial intelligence (AI) humanoid mission roadmap" at the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) in Seongbuk District, Seoul, and unveiled the plan.
The Ministry of Science and ICT is pursuing the humanoid field as one of the K-moonshot missions that uses AI to speed up research and development in science and technology. The goal is to secure a world-class domestic humanoid platform within three years.
At the meeting, mission manager Program Director (PD) Yeo Jun-gu announced a draft of the humanoid mission roadmap. Attendees then discussed developing core foundational technologies for humanoids, securing training data, building an industry–academia–research collaboration system, and linking research成果 to industrialization and overseas expansion.
PD Yeo said that after AI, the importance of "physical intelligence," which makes judgments and acts autonomously in the real world, will grow, and explained that humanoids can serve as a key platform to realize it. Yeo also emphasized the need to secure related technologies strategically to respond to population decline and other issues.
The Ministry of Science and ICT will incorporate the opinions gathered at the meeting, refine the roadmap, and then submit it as an agenda item to the Council of Ministers on Science and Technology next month for public release.