Founded in 2021, Cooperative Robot SI Specialized
Domestic cooperative robot market sales 9.1 percent
Estimated sales for this year 19.4 billion 2021 cooperative robot SI professional
Domestic cooperative robot market sales 9.1 percent
Estimated sales for this year 19.4 billion won
Operation of unique robot coffee and chicken stores

Kim Ki-hwan, CEO of STS Robotech, Korea's largest cooperative robot SI company located in Sasang-gu, Busan, explains the advantages of cooperative robots.


"The era of one robot per person will surely come. To explain the robot industry figuratively, the dawn is just beginning. If Busan is prepared well, it can lead the era of the fourth industry."

Kim Ki-hwan (54), CEO of STS Robotech, Korea's largest cooperative robot SI company located in Sasang-gu, Busan, said with support. STS Robotech is a leading robot company in Busan, which has been growing remarkably enough to alone account for 9.1% of the domestic cooperative robot market sales in 2022 since its establishment in 2021. In September last year, 113 cooperative robots operated by the company obtained large-scale safety certification for the first time in Korea, drawing attention from the robot industry.

■ Robots that help people

Unlike industrial robots, cooperative robots literally refer to robots that help people and perform tasks. They do not require installing a safety fence, are easy to operate, and are cheaper than industrial robots. STS Robotech is a company specializing in robot system integration, or system integration, that uses cooperative robots. The ecosystem of the robot industry is largely divided into three categories. It is a robot manufacturer, a system integration company, and a consumer. Robot manufacturers produce robot arms that can move freely. In addition, a system integration company is responsible for designing, installing, and maintaining programs that can utilize robot arms to meet the demands of consumers. STS Robotech is one of them. "The job is to develop brains that give instructions to humans to move the robot arms, and hands that can perform tasks in detail," Kim said. "The company is to develop automated solutions using cooperative robots suitable for the field such as manufacturing, food and beverage businesses."

Inside STS Robotech's production plant in Sasang-gu, a row of cooperative robots are moving in perfect order. STS Robotech not only develops cooperative robots and delivers them to consumers but also directly utilizes them to produce high-quality parts such as semiconductor parts and valves. Currently, it has a total of 210 cooperative robots. STS Robotech also made a record of supplying 182 cooperative robots to 13 domestic companies in 2022.

"There is no place in Korea where a robot SI company has this scale and simultaneously produces and develops parts," CEO Kim said. "Since the introduction of cooperative robots, productivity has increased by 110% on average, and the defect rate has decreased by 48%, so we think the estimated sales in 2024 will be 19.4 billion won."

■ Hand drip coffee from the robot

A robot barista from STS Robotech works at the Weing Robot Cafe near Dongui University in Busanjin-gu, Busan. When you place an order through a kiosk, the robot arms move and brew coffee for you. He grabs a kettle with hot water and makes coffee with elaborate movements. STS Robotech also operates a chicken restaurant. Weing Robot Chicken, a little bigger and longer than a cafe, is frying chicken. Recently, the company has developed not only a coffee robot and a chicken robot but also Korea's first gimbap robot, which is on the verge of commercialization.

"Both of them are not made to make profits, but they serve as testbeds that can test and promote the performance of cooperative robots," Kim said. "Robot chicken shops are even halal-certified," he added.

Kim dreams of coexistence of people and robots through cooperative robots. "Robots are not a concept that invades or pushes people's jobs," Kim said. "For example, if you fry chicken all day long, you will continue to inhale oil vapor, which is a harmful substance. If cooperative robots can replace such tasks, people can afford to focus on higher tasks."

He explained in detail the coexistence of robots and humans by saying that robots can become human successors. "I heard recently that there is a master of tteok-galbi in Damyang, and I am in trouble because I cannot find a future generation," Kim said. "What if a robot follows everything of a master and becomes a handmade robot? It means that robots are active in places where there is no one to work." This means that cooperative robots can solve manpower shortage, improve 3D industry environment, stabilize quality, and prevent industrial accidents.

■ Busan, to become the mecca of the robot industry

According to the Korea Institute of Science and ICT, the global service robot market, which was 30.1 billion U.S. dollars in 2020, has grown to 43.5 billion dollars last year. It is expected to grow to 103.3 billion dollars by 2026. If limited to Korea, the service robot market is expected to grow 23.3 percent annually from 440 million dollars last year, reaching 1.03 billion dollars by 2026. However, in many cases, the government cannot handle the explosive growth of the robot industry. Various regulations have hindered the growth of the robot industry in many cases.

"Frustrating things often happen," CEO Kim said. "When Mayor Seo Byeong-soo was working with the city to create a food cafe by installing a robot arm in a container box as part of a robot citizen-friendly project, he was sanctioned as an illegal building after developing it." "We plan to export things that have not been introduced in Korea to Cambodia and Vietnam," he said.

In December last year, Kim Jong-ho, chairman of the Korea Technology Guarantee Fund, visited STS Robotech. They showed high interest by listening to current issues and difficulties in the robot industry and discussing regulatory innovation measures to revitalize the robot industry. Prior to this, Busan Mayor Park Hyung-joon visited STS Robotech for similar purposes.