김병수 로보티즈 대표"노동인구 감소세...자율주행로봇 시장 커질 것" [Original Article]

ROBOTIS, in which LG Electronics owns about 7.53% of, is a self-driving robot company founded in 1999, and CEO Kim Byung-soo (27.42% stake) has led the company for 24 years. ROBOTIS was listed on the KOSDAQ market in October 2018, and in 2020, it won the Minister of SMEs and Startups Award at the 'Republic of Korea SME Regulatory Innovation Award'. 

ROBOTIS CEO Kim Byung-soo will diagnose trends in the self-driving robot market while visiting 'CES 2024', the world's largest home appliance and IT exhibition held in Las Vegas, USA in January. CEO Kim said, "It will be of great help in learning about trends in the overseas autonomous robot market and finding the direction in which ROBOTIS will move forward in the future," and "Through this, we will be able to understand the trends and prospects of the robot industry one step ahead of other companies." He continued, “While the overseas robot market is changing every day, the domestic market will have difficulty growing if the government does not support it.” He added, “If we look at Korea’s autonomous robot industry, there will be many opportunities to lead the global market at various points in time.” He urged the government to support the robot industry, saying, “In the case of the Chinese robot industry, the national support policy is heating up the capital investment in robots,
but it is unfortunate that Korea is not able to keep up. ”

Please introduce your company briefly.
“ROBOTIS develops both software (SW) and hardware (HW) with its own technology, and possesses the original technologies for autonomous robots, smart actuators, reducers, and manipulators, and is steadily expanding its market. Robots are an exploration of our lives. We are opening the era of one robot per person by considering humans.”

What led you to create autonomous robots?
"ROBOTIS has been developing robot-specific actuators since the early 2000s and has been conducting this business ever since. Through this, we have been able to naturally find out who mainly purchases actuators and where they are used.
As a result, we have the advantage of being able to understand the trends and prospects of the robot industry one step ahead of other companies. Accordingly, we were able to quickly recognize the growth potential of the autonomous robot industry, and we developed an autonomous robot research and development (R&D) platform starting in 2016, and began developing autonomous robot commercialization products in earnest starting in 2018. Since then, we have accumulated
abundant data, experience, and know-how by continuously upgrading our products and services while conducting various verification tests at home and abroad."

What is the size of the domestic and international robot market and the reasons for its expansion?
"As the working population decreases due to low birth rates and aging population and the e-commerce market expands, the autonomous robot market is expected to grow in various service fields (short-distance delivery, security, care, logistics, guidance, etc.) including delivery in the future. According to a market analysis report by research firm Marketsand Markets, the autonomous robot market size is expected to grow to approximately USD 4.1 billion by 2028." 

Please introduce ROBOTIS' robots by field.
"Our autonomous driving robot 'GAEMI' has indoor and outdoor versions. For indoor use, it is mainly used for amenity delivery in hotels. In addition, it is also used for food and beverage delivery and document delivery in office buildings and public offices. Recently, it is being used for guidance services and docent services at exhibition halls in addition to delivery. For outdoor use, it is currently used for food and beverage and product delivery in resorts, apartment complexes, and campsites, and provides urban order delivery services only in areas permitted as regulatory sandboxes. In addition, it is expanding into various outdoor services such as parcel delivery, guidance, patrol, and collection of recyclables. It is currently providing commercial services in about 50 locations at home and abroad. In particular , it is expanding its presence in overseas markets including Japan and the United States . An actuator refers to a driving device that receives input signals from a robot or machine system and creates motion , and is one of the core components of a robot that allows the robot to perform various movements and tasks. Robotis' actuator, DYNAMIXEL, is a modular product that integrates a motor, reducer, sensor, controller, and communication unit. It is an all-in-one robot actuator that can easily configure robot joints as a driving device and efficiently control the system through a network. DYNAMIXEL can be used in various industrial fields that require motion, such as automation, service robots, and medical fields. Compared to general RC sub-motors, it has high rigidity, durability, and precision, and is comparable to industrial servo motors. Communication responsiveness is also very important for precise control of robots . ROBOTIS has invested a lot of resources for over 20 years to continue research and development to improve the stability and efficiency of communication. If the actuator is a key component in a robot, the key component in an actuator is the reducer. Recently, a cycloid reducer called DYD was released. Since it has excellent shock resistance and efficiency, it is expected to continue to replace the harmonic drive reducer that was mainly used in the past . " 

I heard that robots are also supplied to campsites, delivery (parcel delivery), etc. 

"In addition to the hotels mentioned above, we also provide last-mile delivery services for firewood, food, etc. to the tents day and night at campsites. Campsites are places that utilize robots so well that it would be difficult to operate without them . And most people are giving positive evaluations, saying that the robots have a promotional effect and additional revenue generation effect . In order to increase the utilization of robots, we are developing various additional functions in advance in addition to the delivery service . We plan to release some of them to the public in the first half of next year. We emphasize that interest in the GAEMI robot is actually higher overseas than in Korea. In North America, there is also a lot of interest in delivery robots as an alternative to solve the serious labor shortage in the service industry . In particular, there is a hot response to our unique artificial intelligence (AI) control technology that allows robots to move between floors by pressing elevator buttons without separate installation work, and among them, Ant is classified as a premium product with high cost-effectiveness. Not only the world's leading hotel brand chains, but also related service companies are interested in product planning linked with robots and many customers want rapid introduction." 

What do you think the social role of autonomous robots is? 

"Along with the decreasing working population, industries that use their bodies a lot have recently become more severely short of workers. Furthermore, even if it is difficult to find workers, they quit quickly, so their desired level (work intensity, salary, benefits, etc.) is also increasing, and it is becoming increasingly difficult for employers to meet that level. It seems that the current social phenomenon is that such demands are replaced by robots as soon as possible . Therefore, I think the future market outlook is very bright, and Robotis also predicts that it will be able to grow explosively along with the expansion of the autonomous driving service robot market in line with such demands ."

I heard that robot stocks are skyrocketing recently. What is the impact of ROBOTIS?
"We expect to see visible sales starting in the first quarter
of next year with the start of mass production of autonomous robots. In the early stages of a business, especially when new products and services are being introduced to the market,
there are some things that we consider more important than approaching them with a business model that generates immediate profits.
The first is to make the products and services available to many people so that they can experience them and
recognize their value. The second is to boldly and
persistently invest in technology development to meet customer needs and overcome hurdles to business expansion through a lot of empirical experience.
And the last is to focus on growing the market. We are currently in the market growth
phase. We are setting our business direction to make 80% of our sales from business-to-business (B2B) transactions through partners and 20% from business-to-consumer (B2C) transactions through direct communication with end users to upgrade and expand products and services. The
B2B business is a form in which we sell products to partners in a lump sum and partners
receive monthly subscription fees from end users."

Please tell me about your sales and operating profit for the past three years.

"Consolidated sales (operating profit) were KRW 22.4 billion (4.1%) in 2021, KRW 25.8 billion (-8.3%) in 2022, and KRW 13.8 billion (23.5%) in 2023 (June), and more than KRW 10 billion is invested in research and development every year. More than 70% of actuator sales are generated overseas, and for indoor autonomous robots, we have entered the Japanese and US markets and are conducting verification services. We plan to expand our overseas business in earnest once mass-produced products are released in the first quarter of next year."

If you have any domestic collaborating companies, what business is their main focus?
"For the outdoor service robot business, we are currently in detailed discussions with LG Electronics regarding business cooperation,
and it is expected that we will reach a mutual agreement within the year at the earliest. On the other hand, for the indoor service robot business, we are in a competitive and cooperative relationship with LG Electronics. To be more specific, LG Electronics is actively pursuing indoor service robot businesses such as serving, delivery, guidance, and quarantine.
However, we have a certain degree of consensus on the concept of a cooperation model that can create synergy by combining the strengths of both companies in advancing into the overseas market for indoor service robots . In addition , we are continuously conducting
technological exchanges and parts supplies . I can tell you that the relationship between Robotis and LG Electronics is open in various directions in the future. In addition to LG Electronics, we have signed a business agreement (MOU) with Lotte Global Logistics and are currently cooperating in business by specifying a business model related to robot delivery in the logistics sector and conducting verification projects together."