Big Push for Robot Business
LG Electronics, which is putting a lot of efforts into the robot business, has developed industrial wearable robots. That will be the eighth robot product for LG Electronics. The company is planning to create new business opportunities in the field of robotics by applying big data-powered artificial intelligence (AI) technology to wearable robots.
LG Electronics announced on August 23 that the company would release the wearable robot "LG CLOi SuitBot" at the IFA 2018, Europe's largest home appliance show to be kicked off in Berlin, Germany, on Aug. 31.
Wearable robots can be worn from the toes to the waist. They began to be used for medical purposes but have been extended to industrial use lately. Market researcher BIS predicts that an increase in demand for industrial robots would ramp up the size of the global wearable robot market from US$96 million in 2016 to US$4.65 billion in 2026.
The LG CLOi SuitBot is the eighth product of the LG CLOi series, an integrated brand of robots officially launched at the CES 2018 early this year. LG Electronics has launched a variety of robots for life such as cleaning robots, lawn mowing robots, serving robots, home robots, porter robots, and shopping cart robots. In particular, Cho Sung-jin, vice chairman of LG Electronics, is expanding its business with a special commitment to promote the robot business. Cho strongly believes that robots will be the core platform in the upcoming 5th generation mobile telecommunication era.
LG Electronics is actively investing in robot-related start-ups, too. The company made equity investment in robot developer Robotiz, robot emotion recognition start-up Acryl, industrial robot maker Robostar, and Bossa Nova Robotics, a US robot development company. This "suitbot" is also the result of LG Electronics’ cooperation with SG Robotics, a start-up specializing in wearable robots. LG Electronics has been conducting joint research with SG Robotics through equity investment since last year.