K-Manufacturing Future: Robot Automation & ‘AX’ Tech

Visit the 2026 Smart Factory and Automation Industry Exhibition (AW 2026)
From humanoids to robot hands… The era of autonomous manufacturing is approaching, bridging the ‘dexterity gap’
While the power of software is being confirmed for external lectures, the ‘slowdown in the spread of smart factories’ remains an issue.

On the 4th, the ‘2026 Smart Factory and Automation Industry Exhibition (AW 2026)’ at COEX, Gangnam-gu, Seoul. As soon as I entered the east gate, I heard boisterous laughter instead of heavy mechanical sounds. The source of the sound was the booth of Top Robot, a humanoid rental company, located in front of the entrance to Hall B on the first floor. There, a ‘little robot’ the size of a five-year-old child was chasing a red toy soccer ball. When a company employee playfully tried to steal the ball, the robot ran up to him like a real child, and was so motivated that he made several futile attempts to overcome a crisis that nearly landed him on his butt.

A visitor I met at the event said, “I was expecting him to dribble like a soccer prodigy, but it was a surprise because he couldn’t kick the ball properly.” He also said, “It was amazing because it felt like I was seeing a real child looking around and tilting and making a fuss when the ball disappeared from his field of vision.” It was a scene symbolizing the evolution of physical AI, which is not a machine that simply follows a programmed trajectory, but responds to its surrounding environment in real time.

Eyes focused on ‘Atlas’… ‘All-out war’ between powerful robots

This cute soccer prodigy robot was just a preview of the exhibition’s main theme, manufacturing ‘AX’ (AI conversion). As I entered Hall D, the main stage of the exhibition, I could see the present and future of Korean robotics at a glance. The joint booth of Hyundai Glovis and Hyundai Robotics Lab, which filled one wall, was by far the landmark of this exhibition. In particular, in front of Boston Dynamics’ ‘Atlas’ non-driving model, which was unveiled for the first time in Korea, there was no room for crowds to step in to see the main character that captivated ‘CES 2026’, the world’s largest electronics and IT exhibition, in real life.

Lee Gyu-bok, CEO of Hyundai Glovis, who visited the event venue on this day, said, “Atlas is being taught first at the Hyundai Glovis Integrated Logistics Center at the Savannah, Georgia plant (HMGMA),” and “We plan to first put it into advanced logistics work in 2028 and then into the manufacturing process in 2030.”

Heavy cargo that the Atlas could not lift was the responsibility of the Ziku Shuttle. This equipment, called a ‘pallet shuttle’, moves a pallet equipped with a transport robot onto a fixed rail and automatically places items weighing over 2 tons into the receiving, storage, and shipping locations. ‘Orca’, a warehouse control system (WCS) platform jointly developed by Hyundai Glovis and its subsidiary Rtiol, It is said that the optimized route is set by analyzing the different sizes and internal structures of each warehouse.

The main characters of this AW 2026 were not only large companies. So-called ‘outside the box robot powerhouses’ such as Yujin Robot and Goseong Engineering have proven the strong backbone of the Korean robot ecosystem by fully deploying autonomous logistics robots (AMR) and collaborative robots in their respective specialized areas. RS Automation, which specializes in robot motion control technology, attracted visitors by recreating the Delta robot, which specializes in pick and place, into a claw machine.

Robotic hand narrows the ‘dexterity gap’… “Challenge the human realm”

What was particularly impressive about this exhibition was that numerous companies focused on ‘robot hand’ technology. In particular, numerous robot companies, including Robotis, Wonik Robotics, and Global Zeus, displayed robot arms that precisely implemented the functions of a human hand at the front of their booth. There were robots that moved peaches and persimmons with soft skin and flesh to a plate without crushing them, and there were robots like Wonik Robotics’ Allegro Hand that picked up strawberries and plums with their fingertips and twirled them as if they were about to put them in someone’s mouth. If the robots of the past focused on the ‘strength’ of moving heavy objects, the robots of 2026 will focus on the ‘delicacy’ of delicately picking up small, soft fruit models without crushing them.

Ken Goldberg, professor of industrial engineering at UC Berkeley, a world-famous scholar in roboticsIs It was believed that there were still engineering challenges for robots to implement the fine finger movements that humans perform unconsciously or force control according to the texture of objects. In a recent interview with this newspaper, he said, “It will still be many years before robots have the complex operating abilities of electricians, mechanics, plumbers, etc.” and also said that it is still 10 years too early for robots to put an end to human labor.

However, the robot hands on display that day clearly showed how the technological barrier of the ‘dexterity gap’ (the limit where robots cannot follow the precise hand movements of humans) pointed out by Professor Goldberg is being overcome. A robot hand incorporating AI Identify the rigidity and shape of an object We were moving towards the stage of deciding on our own the optimal gripping method. This is a moment where AI goes beyond simple automation and becomes the brain and muscle of manufacturing, giving us a glimpse into the future of ‘autonomous manufacturing’ where factories make decisions and execute their own decisions.

The commanding tower of the AI ​​manufacturing site… thinking factory

While robots captured attention with their spectacular performances, on one side of the exhibition hall, companies that claimed to be the ‘brains’ of the manufacturing site, such as LS Electric and Schneider Electric, showed their strong presence. In particular, LS Electric, which had the largest booth at this exhibition, placed its new PLC product ‘SU-CM70’ at the forefront and presented the future of industrial automation solutions linked to the AI ​​factory model. By connecting the virtual factory and the actual site through software (digital twin), AI provided real-time feedback on which processes are currently lacking in production efficiency and which facilities are experiencing defects. This is the birth of a ‘thinking factory’ that allows the robots we saw earlier to demonstrate 100% of their capabilities in industrial settings.

This AW2026 was an opportunity to declare that ‘K Manufacturing’ is moving into the era of ‘autonomous manufacturing’, in which factories judge the situation on their own and produce optimal products without human intervention. AI technology that grasps the flow of factory data at a glance and maximizes energy efficiency gave me the feeling that ‘autonomous manufacturing’ is becoming more than just a fad, it is becoming an essential infrastructure for survival.

However, behind the spectacular technology, there were also problems that needed to be solved. This is because it is thought that the technological gap between large corporations and small and medium-sized enterprises in the manufacturing industry will widen day by day. In fact, the government established the Smart Manufacturing Innovation Promotion Team under the Ministry of SMEs and Startups in 2019 and has fully supported AX of small and medium-sized enterprises, but the annual spread of smart factories has recently been slowing down. According to the ‘1st Smart Manufacturing Innovation Survey’ published last year, the adoption rate of intelligent (smart) factories among small and medium-sized enterprises is about 18.6%, which is about one-fifth of that of medium-sized enterprises (85.7%).

A company official met at the event said, “Large companies have the ability to realize AI conversion on their own, but small and medium-sized companies, which will be the main customers of industrial automation solutions, often hesitate to invest due to the initial cost burden,” emphasizing that government support is needed for the growth and coexistence of the autonomous manufacturing industry.

Reporter Kim Jin-young camp@asiae.co.kr

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