LG Electronics said Tuesday it will set up a new robotics business center directly under its chief executive in a reshuffle aimed at accelerating one of its key future growth bets in physical AI.
The new Robotics Business Center launching Wednesday will bring together business development, sales and operations functions, giving the unit a full business structure covering everything from finding new opportunities to supply chain and manufacturing, the company said.
The center will be led by Song Si-yong, who previously headed manufacturing capability enhancement, production system solutions and smart factory solutions at LG Electronics’ Production Engineering Research Institute.
The move comes about four months ahead of LG’s regular year-end reshuffle, underscoring the company’s growing emphasis on robotics as a strategic future business.
LG will also place a dedicated data factory organization under the new center to build data for robot training. The company said it plans to use the high-quality data generated through the facility to advance its robot foundation model and create stronger links between its AI and robotics businesses.
"We expect the new structure to strengthen governance over our robotics push, allowing faster decision-making, more agile strategy execution, greater in-house technology development and better cost competitiveness," the company said in a statement.
The company also expects the center to make it easier to coordinate robotics projects across LG affiliates, including LG CNS and LG AI Research, under a “One LG” approach, while expanding partnerships with global big tech companies.
LG plans to target the robotics market on three fronts: home robots through the new center, industrial robots through its subsidiary Robostar and commercial robots through Bear Robotics.
The company said it sees this year as a foundation-building year for its robotics business, as it seeks to become a comprehensive robotics solutions provider spanning finished robots, key components such as actuators and data factories for robot training.
LG is building a large-scale robot training data factory at its Yangjae R&D campus in southern Seoul, with operations scheduled to begin within the year. It is also preparing to produce actuators in Korea based on more than six decades of motor technology and plans to supply them to external customers.
herim@heraldcorp.com