As robotics has progressed, industry has regularly adopted more robots to automate many types of growing. More than 540,000 new industrial robots have been installed worldwide in 2023, taking the number of active total industrial robots at more than 4 million Iffr.
Industrial robots generally excel in repetitive tasks, but they find it difficult to perform precise tasks, manage delicate materials and adapt to changing conditions – a robot in the kitchen of a restaurant would be more than useful, for example. This is why many industrial processes are still manual.
South Korean startup RLWRLD aims to solve this problem with a fundamental AI model that he has built specifically for robotics by combining large language models with traditional robotic software. The company claims that this model will allow robots to make rapid and agile movements and also make a certain amount of “logical reasoning”.
“The use of the RLWRLD foundation model, processes that require a lot of manual work can be completely automated by learning and copying human expertise, making more effective work environments,” said Jung-Hee Ryu, founder and CEO of RLWRLD, in an exclusive interview with Techcrunch.
The startup is now out of stealth with 21 billion KRW (approximately $ 14.8 million) of starting financing. The Tour was led by the chopped venture capital company, and Mirae Asset Venture Investment and Global Brain have also invested.
In particular, RLWRLD has attracted a long list of major strategic investors – Ana Group, PKSHA, Mitsui Chemical, Shimadzu and KDDI of Japan; LG Electronics and SK Telecom from Korea; and Amber Manufacturing in India.
RLWRLD said seed financing will be used to finance concept proof projects with its strategic investors; Secure IT infrastructure such as GPUs, purchasing robots and devices to collect in -depth data; And hire the best research talents. The startup will also use the new money to develop advanced hands movements involving five fingers – a capacity that has not yet been demonstrated by its competitors like Tesla, AI and 1X, said Ryu.
Ryu said RLWRLD is also working with its strategic investors to explore different ways to automate different Man centered on man Using its AI model. They are preparing an autonomous action based on humanoid action, later this year, said Ryu. In addition, the company strives to develop a platform which can take care of various types of robots, including industrial, collaborative and autonomous mobile robots and humanoids.
Founded in 2024, RLWRLD is Ryu’s third startup. His second startup, Olaworks, was acquired by Intel in 2012And ultimately became the Center de R&D Korea of Intel within its computer vision division. And in 2015, he founded A startup accelerator, a future gamewhich focuses on deep technological companies.
When he was asked what inspired him to start a new business again, Ryu said that he had noticed IA startups that were increasing in number in the United States, Europe and China, while IA startups comparable in Korea and Japan were relatively absent.
He spoke with more than 30 AI teachers from Korea and Japan of their challenges – everything, lack of infrastructure such as data and GPUs, and the obstacles that have discouraged them to launch a business – and the opportunities available.
“I determined that it would be strategically beneficial to prioritize the models of the Robotics Foundation (RFM) in the technologically saturated field of LLM, capitalizing on Korea and the notable global forces of Japan in manufacturing,” he said.
Shortly after, he took six best -classified institutions in South Korea on board, notably Kaist, SNU and Postch, as well as their research teams, to launch RLWRLD.
RLWRLD is not the only one to solve this problem. Startups like Skild AI and Physical intelligence build fundamental models similar to robotics, as are large companies like Tesla, Google Deepmindand Nvidia.
But Ryu thinks that his startup has a good start, because he already has the AI and the robotics experts he needs to develop fundamental models for robotics, as well as humanoid robots with a high degree of freedom (DOF).
“In addition, [such companies] Generally rely on low DOF robots such as two fingers pliers. RLWRLD has already obtained a reference robot with high DOF and therefore expects higher performance results, “he said.
Ryu also said that thanks to its strategic investors, RLWRLD can quickly collect precious data from nearby manufacturing sites. In 2024, a report said Japan and South Korea collectively represented 9.2% of global manufacturing production.
RLWRLD aims to generate income this year through concept proof projects (POC) and collaboration demonstrations with strategic partners.
The long -term objective of the startup is to respond to factories, logistics centers and retail stores, and even robots that can be used in domestic environments to help with household chores. In the meantime, the priority is to target manufacturers because they are ready to pay the most and have the high demand for automation.
The startup has 13 employees.
