With the development of robotics, the industry has steadily adopted more robots to automatically eliminate many greedy jobs. More than 540,000 new industrial robots are installed worldwide in 2023 ifr.
Industrial robots often do well on repetitive tasks, but they find it challenging to perform precise tasks, handle delicate materials and adapt to changing conditions – for example, robots in restaurant kitchens can hinder you from being useless. This is why many industrial processes are still manual.
Korean startups rlwrld The problem is solved by a basic AI model that combines large language models with traditional robotic software. The company said the model will enable robots to move quickly and agilely and perform some “logical reasoning.”
“Using the underlying model of RLWRLD, a process that requires a lot of manual work can fully automate and replicate human expertise and make the work environment more efficient,” Jung-Hee Ryu, founder and CEO of RLWRLD, said in an exclusive interview with TechCrunch.
The startup is now standing out of invisibility with 21 billion krw (about $14.8 million) of seed funding. The round was led by venture capital firm Hashed, with Mirae Asset Venture Investment and Global Brain also investing.
It is worth noting that RLWRLD has attracted a range of large strategic investors – ANA Group, PKSHA, Mitsui Chemical, Shimadzu and KDDI from Japan; LG Electronics and SK Telecom from South Korea; and amber manufacturing industry in India.
RLWRLD said seed funding will be used to fund proof-of-concept projects with its strategic investors; secure computing infrastructure (such as GPUs, buying robots and equipment) to collect a wide range of data; and to hire top research talent. Ryu said the startup will also use new funds to develop advanced manual sports involving five Fingers – a competence that has not been proven by competitors such as Tesla, Tige AI and 1X.
Ryu said RLWRLD also works with its strategic investors to explore different ways of automation People-oriented workflow Use its AI model. Ryu said they are preparing for a demonstration of autonomous action based on humans, which is planned to be carried out later this year. In addition, the company is working to develop a platform that can support a variety of robots, including industrial, collaborative, automated mobile robots and humanoid mechanisms.
Founded in 2024, RLWRLD is RYU’s third startup. His second startup Olaworks, acquired by Intel in 2012eventually became the Intel Korea R&D center in its computer vision department. In 2015, he founded Start the accelerator, future playbackThis focuses on the introduction of Deep Technology.
When asked what prompted him to start a new company again, Ryu said he noticed that AI startups are getting faster and faster in the U.S., Europe and China, while AI startups in South Korea and Japan are relatively non-existent.
He spoke with more than 30 AI professors from South Korea and Japan to discuss their challenges – from the lack of infrastructure (such as data and GPU) and the barriers to dissuading them from doing business and the opportunities available.
“I decided to prioritize the area of technology saturation in the Robotics Foundation Model (RFM) over LLM, which is strategically beneficial, which takes advantage of the significant global advantages of South Korea and Japan in manufacturing,” he said.
Shortly thereafter, he brought board members from the highest-ranked institution in South Korea, including Kaist, SNU and Posttech, as well as their research teams to launch RLWRLD.
RLWRLD does not solve this problem alone. Similar startups Skating AI and Body intelligence A similar basic model is being built for robotics, as are big companies like Tesla Google Deepmindand Nvidia.
But Ryu believes his startup has a good start because it already has AI and robotics experts to develop basic models of robotics and humanoid robots with high degrees of freedom (DOF).
“also, [such companies] Usually rely on low-drinking robots, such as two-finger grippers. RLWRLD has already obtained high DOF reference robots and therefore expects excellent performance results. ” he said.
Ryu also said that thanks to its strategic investors, RLWRLD can quickly collect valuable data from nearby manufacturing sites. In 2024, Report It shows that Japan and South Korea jointly account for 9.2% of global manufacturing and production.
RLWRLD aims to generate revenue through proof-of-concept (POC) projects and demonstrations with strategic partners.
The startup’s long-term goal is to cater to factories, logistics centers and retail stores, and even robots that can be used in a home environment to aid household chores. At the same time, the priority is to target industries, as they are willing to pay the most and have a strong demand for automation.
The startup has 13 employees.
