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South Korea Eases Safety Rules to Deploy Humanoid and Quadruped Robots in Factories and Public Spaces
By Drooid · · How we work
Regulatory Shift Enables Humanoid and Quadruped Robot Pilots
South Korea’s Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy approved two regulatory exemptions at the sixth meeting of its Industrial Convergence Regulatory Sandbox Committee. The first exemption allows Maum AI to demonstrate autonomous quadruped patrol robots on pedestrian walkways in the Cheonan area of South Chungcheong Province. The second grants a special demonstration exemption for Robros to operate 20 bipedal humanoid robots across four industrial sites—semiconductor maker Nepes, automotive supplier Sungwoo Hitech, shipbuilder HD Hyundai Samho, and logistics firm Delivery Lab. The robots will share workspaces with human employees, performing tasks such as contaminant removal, part placement, scaffolding stacking and refrigerated-package handling.
Background and Policy Context
Existing safety regulations treated industrial robots as stationary equipment, requiring physical fences that prevented mobile robots from working alongside people. The government has been shifting from case-by-case exemptions toward proactively identifying and revising regulatory bottlenecks. The policy change is framed as a response to manufacturing labor shortages and a drive to accelerate the AI-driven “M.AX” transformation of Korean factories. Earlier initiatives, such as the K-Humanoid Alliance and the AI Robot M.AX Alliance, laid the groundwork for broader field demonstrations.
Pilot Deployment Details and Statistics
- Robots: 20 AI-powered humanoids deployed at four companies.
- Tasks: Contaminant removal (semiconductor), auto-body part placement (automotive), scaffolding piece stacking (shipbuilding), refrigerated-package movement (logistics).
- Quadruped Patrols: Demonstrated along riverside trails and parks, providing real-time hazard detection and video transmission to control centers.
- Investment Plan: The government announced a cumulative 2.3 trillion won (? $1.6 billion) investment in the humanoid ecosystem through 2030, aiming for 80 % domestic core-component content.
- Future Procurement: Plans to purchase 1,080 domestically produced humanoids to meet early demand.
- Industry Scale: International Federation of Robotics reported 30,200 new industrial robot installations in Korea last year, far below China (354,200), the United States (38,400) and Japan (36,200).
Official Statements & Responses
Government officials noted that the demonstration exemptions are conditional on risk assessments and safety-reduction measures overseen by the Ministry of Employment and Labor. The data collected from these pilots will inform future safety standards for mobile robots in shared work environments.
Verbatim Quotes
- “Korea has the manufacturing sites and the skilled workers, which puts it in a favorable position for humanoid demonstrations,” — Han Jae-kwon, a professor of robotics engineering at Hanyang University