Government Declares: "Unmanned Factory to Be Realized Within 3 Years"

KAIST’s KAIROS Platform Integrates AI and Robotics, Setting the Stage for Korea’s Leadership in Global Manufacturing

A demonstration of KAIST’s physical AI testbed, ‘KAIROS.’ (Photo courtesy of KAIST)

With the first implementation of a ‘fully unmanned factory’ in the country, where artificial intelligence (AI) directly operates the plant, the government has begun to materialize its plan to foster physical AI as a national strategic industry.

KAIST announced on March 23 that a team led by Professor Young-Jae Jang of the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering has built ‘KAIROS’, a physical AI testbed that integrates and controls various robots and equipment as a single system.

KAIROS is a ‘100% unmanned factory platform’ that integrates logistics robots, humanoids, collaborative robots, and automated facilities into a single AI-based operating system (OS), allowing the entire factory to operate like a single AI system. While existing automation was centered on individual equipment, KAIROS has a structure where AI oversees the factory operations themselves.

A key feature is that the entire factory operation process—from sensors, controllers, robots, and digital twins to the AI control system—has been integrated using domestic technology. It is evaluated that a foundation has been laid to replace the manufacturing process structure that previously relied on foreign solutions costing hundreds of millions of won.

Taking this as an opportunity, the government is also accelerating the promotion of the physical AI industry.

The Ministry of Science and ICT views the next three years as a ‘golden time’ and plans to secure three major core technologies—robot foundation models, world models, and computing platforms—while expanding the application of AI to all industries, including manufacturing, logistics, agriculture, and care.

The plan is to apply autonomous factory technology to key industries such as automotive, precision manufacturing, and shipbuilding, and then bundle it as a ‘K-Manufacturing Intelligent Factory Package’ for export to the global market.

Industry-academia-research cooperation will also be strengthened simultaneously. On this day at KAIST, an AX cooperation business agreement was signed with the participation of the four major science and technology institutes and 16 companies, including LIG Nex1, Celltrion, and Kakao.

Kakao has decided to create an AI development fund worth 50 billion won over the next five years to support talent cultivation, startups, and the industrial AI transition. It also plans to pursue technology commercialization by establishing a joint research lab with KAIST.

The government’s policy is to build a full-cycle ecosystem through this industry-academia-research cooperation system, covering everything from technology development to demonstration, industrial expansion, and exports.

Bae Kyung-hoon, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Science and ICT, stated, “Now is the time to move beyond technology development to a stage where we transform industries and export,” adding, “We will provide support so that the Republic of Korea can secure leadership in the global manufacturing competition through physical AI.”

KAIST also views this achievement as a starting point for entering the global market. The plan is to develop a dark factory solution based on KAIROS that can compete with global companies like Siemens of Germany and to pursue overseas expansion.

Kim Eun-jin