Seoul, South Korea, July 3, 2018 — LG Electronics now announces first overseas robotics investment in US-based startup Bossa Nova Robotics. Next to this most recent move, they have invested more than $90m in other Korean robotics companies over the past year.
The spent capital is aimed to complement LG’s own efforts to build solutions by making use of robotics and related technologies. Aside from the Bossa Nova investment, the other four Korean companies in the scope of this initiative are Acryl, SG ROBOTICS, Robotis, and Robostar.
Info about the involved robotics startups
Bossa Nova Robotics provides solutions for real-time inventory reporting for on-shelf product data in retail stores. The collection of inventory data is automated and a robot patrols the isles in a store to scan the shelves. Walmart was one of the test partners who made use of the Bossa Nova products since last year.
Acryl is a 7-year-old cognitive computing company and has been founded by people from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST). They are working on an AI called “Jonathan” which can recognize human emotions and the meaning of text, speech, and images by leveraging big data and deep learning algorithms.
The startup SG ROBOTICS works on “wearable robots” that function much like body-augmenting exoskeletons to boost the power of the wearer or help movement-impaired people to do activities which would be a lot more exhausting without such a solution. Their WalkON Suit won a bronze medal at the Cybathlon 2016 and was used by the torch bearer at the PyeongChang 2018 Paralympics.
Robotis builds robotic solutions and educational robots with a focus on multi-joined robots. They also produce hardware like controllers, sensor modules, software and other accessories to help with robot programming. The company Robostar, on the other hand, specializes in the manufacturing of industrial robotics solutions. Their customers come from industries such as mobile, display, automobile and semiconductors.
Leadership insight
“Robotics, as a key component of our ThinQ AI strategy, is a critical future growth opportunity for LG,” said Kim Sungwook, vice president of the global open innovation division at LG Electronics. “LG is committed to expanding its robotics capabilities through investments in innovative partners as well as intense R and D efforts from within.”
YouTube: Bossa Nova robot navigates autonomously and uses AI for on-shelf inventory analysis
Photo credit: All images used have been provided by LG for press use.
Source: LG press release
Editorial notice: The quote was provided as part of a public press release.
