Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) Holdings said on Friday that it signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with KT Corporation to tie up for a 5G-based robot and ‘smart’ business at KT’s headquarters in Seoul. Present at the signing ceremony were Kwon Oh-gap, Vice Chairman & CEO of HHI Holdings, and Hwang Chang-gyu, Chairman & CEO of KT, along with others.

Under the MoU, the two parties will join hands to develop 5G-based smart robots, mobile service robots and smart factory solutions by 2020. In this collaboration, HHI Holdings will be responsible for robots, automated facilities and smart factory platforms, while KT will provide wired and wireless communication infrastructure, such as 5G, artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud computing, as well as ICT platforms.

The two companies will make united efforts to develop smart robots that enhance space efficiency of factories and facilitate process rearrangements using a wireless control technology, while also aiming to bring to the market more robots for the private sector by developing AI mobile robots designed to function as servers at hotels and cafes.

Also planned under the MoU is development of smart factory solutions aimed at making joint inroads into the market for collaborative robots and machine vision, which will pave the way for the two parties to take the lead in efforts to enhance productivity of clients and commercialize related technologies.

“We are excited to collaborate with KT, equipped with the world’s finest telecommunication technologies, to achieve the shared goal of developing robots and smart solutions outperforming any other in the global market,” said Kwon Oh-gap, Vice Chairman & CEO of HHI Holdings. “We hold high expectations that this collaboration will help take Korea’s manufacturing industry to the next level, in terms of what we are capable of and where we stand globally.”

Hwang Chang-gyu, Chairman & CEO of KT, said “we envisage the two parties pinoeering the future of Korea’s manufacturing industry making the most of our respective areas of expertise and know-how,” adding “we also hope this tie-up with HHI Holdings to develop 5G/AI-based robots and smart factory solutions will grow into a continuous business relationship for the two leading companies to collaborate further on other projects building on the jointly developed products.”

Having signed an agreement with Chinese robot maker Jiangsu Hagong Intelligent Robot (HGZN) in September last year under which it will export cutting-edge smart factory technologies, HHI Holdings also unveiled its trademark H!-FACTORY, a comprehensive smart factory platform in March this year at Korea’s biggest exhibition for smart factory and industrial automation titled “Smart Factory + Automation World 2019,” now geared up for full-fledged inroads into the smart factory market.