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The market for ¡°intelligent¡± robots holds rich potential, with Japan, the U.S. and several European countries racing each other for the lead. But even they have only just left the starting line in the huge ¡°blue ocean¡± market that experts say could be a massive source of income for Korea if the government and businesses put their mind to focused collaboration.
The leader so far is Japan. It accounts for 60 percent of global demand for intelligent robots and is also the no. 1 producer. The Japanese government and businesses have joined hands, and small but strong businesses equipped with the world¡¯s best precision tools and materials technologies are playing a big part.
The Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and the Mitsubishi Research Institute forecast that the intelligent robot market will reach US$500 billion by 2020. This means it will snowball over 30 times from $15 billion last year. Japan expects to survive on robots in the 21st century as it did on cars in the 20th.
The blueprint for national projects such as the 21C Robot Challenge Program (2001), the Big 7 MADE IN JAPAN Industry Project and the Network Robot Technology Development Project is already there. The first nation to make a film about a robot with human feelings, ¡°Atom,¡± the Japanese are culturally and socially more used to the idea of living with robots. That may have been one of the strong points for the country. The U.S., living up to its reputation as a powerful source of military, space and artificial intelligence technologies, follows right behind, led by specialized firms such as iRobot.
Korea, by comparison, is just starting out. The Korean robot market as of 2004 amounted to W350 billion, the sixth largest worldwide, and while it distributed 47,000 robots, the fifth-largest number, that translated into 138 robots per 10,000 people, which placed it third in the world. Still, Korea accounts for only 3 percent of the world market.
The Korean government¡¯s goal is to have the country recognized as one of the world¡¯s three strongest robot-tech nations by expanding its global market share to 15 percent and export revenues to $20 billion. In July 2003, intelligent robots were designated as one of 10 next-generation technologies to drive the nation¡¯s growth, and last December, the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy launched a robot industry team.
But there is a long way to go. The Korean market is merely a tenth of Japan¡¯s in scale. While globally renowned electronic firms like Sony, Honda and Fujitsu are among a number that lead the Japanese robot industry, large Korean firms¡¯ participation is limited to Samsung Electronics, Hyundai Heavy Industries and Doosan Mecatec. In addition, there are around 100 venture businesses developing products and technologies, most of which relatively small with capital of less than W10 billion. The research force consists of around 2,000 researchers but lacks highly specialized human resources with PhDs.
Yet there are strong points too. Among them are Korea¡¯s manufacturing robot and IT production technologies and wideband and mobile communication networks. A generation that grew up watching ¡°Mazinger Z¡± is another advantage for the country because these young people are accustomed to the idea of a robot culture. ¡°Unlike other manufacture fields that are hard to catch up with from behind, the robot industry holds great potential for Korea because we are strong in the IT field,¡± ministry official Lee Tae-yong says. ¡°Similar to the automobile industry, the robot industry is a combination of parts and materials, IT and software industries. It¡¯s a very promising market.¡±
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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