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As robotics has shape up , industry has steady adopted more golem to automate many variety of grunt workplace . More than 540,000 raw industrial robots were install worldwide in 2023 , taking the phone number of total industrial robots active to above 4 million , perIFR .
Industrial robots typically excel at insistent tasks , but they witness it dispute to perform precise job , handle ticklish materials , and set to changing conditions — a robot in a restaurant ’s kitchen would get in the way more than be helpful , for example . That is why many industrial process are still manual .
South Korean startupRLWRLDaims to solve this job with a foundational AI model that it has build specifically for robotics by combining prominent language good example with traditional robotics software . The company says this model will enable robots to make quick and spry apparent movement and perform some amount of “ ordered reasoning ” as well .
“ Using RLWRLD ’s cornerstone good example , processes that take a destiny of manual piece of work can be completely automatise by learning and replicate human expertise , make water oeuvre environs more effective , ” Jung - Hee Ryu , laminitis and CEO of RLWRLD , said in an undivided interview with TechCrunch .
The inauguration is now coming out of stealing with 21 billion KRW ( about $ 14.8 million ) in cum financial backing . The round was led by venture capital firm Hashed ; Mirae Asset Venture Investment and Global Brain also invest .
Notably , RLWRLD has draw a recollective listing of expectant strategical investors — Ana Group , PKSHA , Mitsui Chemical , Shimadzu , and KDDI from Japan ; LG Electronics and SK Telecom from Korea ; and Amber Manufacturing from India .
RLWRLD said the cum backing will be used to fund proof - of - concept projects with its strategical investor ; unassailable computing base like GPUs , leverage robots , and obtain devices to collect broad data point ; and hire top research endowment . The inauguration will also apply the new money to develop ripe hired man campaign involving five fingers — a capacity that ’s not yet been demonstrated by its competition like Tesla , Figure AI , and 1X , Ryu say .
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Ryu said RLWRLD is also work with its strategic investors to search ways to automatize differenthuman - centrical workflowsusing its AI model . They are together organize a mechanical man - based autonomous activity presentation , scheduled for later this year , Ryu said . In addition , the company is influence to grow a platform that can support various form of robots , admit industrial , collaborative , autonomous nomadic robots , and humanoids .
Founded in 2024 , RLWRLD is Ryu ’s third startup . His second startup , Olaworks , was learn by Intel in 2012 , and eventually became Intel ’s Korea R&D center within its data processor sight sectionalisation . And in 2015 , he foundeda startup accelerator , Future sport , that sharpen on deep technical school companies .
When asked what inspired him to start a new company again , Ryu said he noticed how apace AI inauguration were increase in number in the U.S. , Europe , and China , while comparable AI startups in Korea and Japan were relatively missing .
He spoke with over 30 AI professors from Korea and Japan about their challenge — everything from the lack of infrastructure like data and GPUs , and the obstacle that discourage them to set up a speculation — and the opportunities available .
“ I determined that it would be strategically beneficial to prioritize robotics institution models ( RFM ) over the technologically saturated field of LLMs , capitalizing on Korea and Japan ’s notable global strengths in fabrication , ” he said .
Soon afterward , he brought on board six professor from top - ranked mental institution in South Korea , let in KAIST , SNU , and POSTECH , along with their inquiry teams , to launch RLWRLD .
RLWRLD is n’t alone in tackle this problem . startup likeSkild AIandPhysical Intelligenceare build similar foundational models for robotics , as are orotund firms like Tesla , Google DeepMind , andNvidia .
But Ryu believes his startup has a good start , as it already has the AI and robotics experts it needs to develop foundational models for robotics , as well as humanoid robots with in high spirits degree of freedom ( DoF ) .
“ Additionally , [ such party ] typically bank on low - DoF golem such as two - fingered grippers . RLWRLD has already secured a high - DoF quotation robot , and therefore anticipate superior execution outcomes , ” he said .
Ryu also said that thanks to its strategic investor , RLWRLD can apace gather valuable information from manufacture sites site nearby . In 2024,a reportindicated that Japan and South Korea jointly accounted for 9.2 % of worldwide manufacturing production .
RLWRLD aim to generate revenue as early as this year through proof - of - construct ( PoC ) projects and collaboration demonstrations with strategical partners .
The startup ’s recollective - terminal figure goal is to ply to factories , logistics centers , and retail shop , and even automaton that can be used in domesticated surround to assist with household chores . In the meantime , the precedency is to point industrials since they are willing to pay the most and have strong demand for mechanization .
The startup has 13 employee .
