Developing a Platform to Manage the AI Agent Lifecycle and Promoting Autonomy in Office Environments

The Only Full-Stack Company in Korea with Integrated Capabilities Across AI, OT, and IT Layers

POSCO DX (CEO Shim Min-suk) is accelerating technology development and commercialization after declaring its transition into an “AI Native Company.”

On July 29, POSCO DX held a press conference at Lotte Hotel Seoul and announced a business strategy to leap forward as an “AI Native Company,” centering on two pillars: “Physical AI” for industrial sites and “Agentic AI” for office work.

First, the company is focusing on expanding Physical AI to realize an intelligent factory where the three key entities-humans, AI, and on-site equipment & robots-collaborate organically. The core idea is to achieve the robotization of equipment by integrating Physical AI technology into industrial sites to optimally control large-scale machinery. Through this, Physical AI is being applied to steel mill equipment weighing tens of tons, such as large cranes transporting steel materials, reclaimers transferring raw materials in the yard, and ship raw material unloaders, thereby ensuring worker safety and enhancing productivity. Furthermore, the company explained that it is establishing a system in which the tacit knowledge possessed by highly skilled operators is converted into core data for Physical AI, enabling AI to collaborate with humans in the on-site control room to operate robots and equipment.

POSCO DX is also actively promoting the application of industrial robots in high-intensity and high-risk sites. It provides robot automation services ranging from consulting and design to construction and operation, and possesses a strength in supporting optimal robot operation by securing a platform for heterogeneous robot management in collaboration with POSCO. In particular, it designs optimal robot systems based on simulation and is pursuing the advancement of robot locomotion and manipulation through the development of VLA (Vision Language Action) models applied to mobile robots, such as humanoids.

On this day, the company introduced examples of robots performing high-intensity and high-risk tasks, such as robots for removing impurities from the melting furnace in the galvanizing process of the steel mill, band cutter robots in the cold rolling process, and AGVs for automatically transporting 65-ton steel products. In addition, they shared the robotization of raw material sampling and logistics automation tasks for eco-friendly material and vehicle parts production plants.

POSCO DX has independently developed ‘Agentee,’ a platform designed to implement agentic AI for office and management environments. It integrates the lifecycle of AI agents—from recruitment and evaluation to training, promotion, and retirement—much like human employees. Based on this, the company plans to promote the autonomization of office and management tasks through domain-specific ‘AI employees.’ First, AX Consulting is conducted to analyze corporate workflows and design business processes where roles are divided and performed by humans and AI agents. Based on this, Agentee develops customized agents or repurposes existing ones. A key advantage is that the entire process, from design to development, is carried out within Agentee according to standardized methodologies, enabling the rapid deployment of AI agents.

At the event, examples of utilizing AI agents in tasks such as finance, human resources, labor relations, and business management were presented. It was explained that an innovative case was observed regarding the monthly recurring “pre-settlement risk check” task, where the agent automatically scanned all account categories to identify abnormal accounts and missing vouchers, and even generated risk reports, thereby reducing the task time from approximately three hours to within one minute. The company expects that expanding the application of AI agents to the entire accounting settlement process will improve productivity by at least 30% compared to the current level. Currently, the company has developed and is operating over 200 AI agents for POSCO group companies, including POSCO DX, and plans to establish and disseminate a standard model for the group while supplying the verified platform to the external market.

A POSCO DX official emphasized, “As the only full-stack company in Korea equipped with integrated capabilities across all levels from operational systems (OT) to IT, we will leap forward as the company that best implements physical AI and agentic AI services by integrating AX technology based on our combined capabilities and understanding of physical and office domains.”

Meanwhile, POSCO group has established a ‘Mission-oriented AX’ strategy and is accelerating its major AI transformation centered on three axes: Process, Work, and Value. Furthermore, at the CEO Investor Day held on July 2, the group unveiled a vision to establish a ‘Triple-core’ system encompassing industrial resources (steel), strategic resources (lithium, cathode and anode materials, rare earth elements, etc.), and energy resources (LNG, renewable energy). In addition, regarding new business areas, the group announced plans to commercialize physical AI for the process industry, based on the experience in equipment automation and intelligence accumulated in the steel sector and a vast amount of field data.

▲ ▲ POSCO DX’s Sim-to-Real Simulation for Robot Automation of the Drive Motor Core Stator Production Line at POSCO Mobility Solution

▲ POSCO DX’s Sim-to-Real Simulation for Robot Automation of the Drive Motor Core Stator Production Line at POSCO Mobility Solution

Enabled real-time sharing of transaction information between the headquarters and overseas subsidiaries through a shared ledger

Tokenized accounts receivable as real-world assets (RWAs)

Validated AI agent-based automation of trade operations and other key capabilities

On the 23rd, POSCO INTERNATIONAL (CEO LEE Kye-In) announced that it has completed a proof of concept (PoC) for a blockchain- and AI-based trade finance infrastructure in collaboration with LG CNS, applying the technologies in a real-world global trading environment.

POSCO INTERNATIONAL undertook this PoC to improve the efficiency of managing the growing volume of transactions and settlements with overseas subsidiaries driven by its global business expansion, while accelerating the digital transformation of its trade operations. The company demonstrated digital technologies for global trade in three key areas: ▲ real-time sharing of transaction information through a shared ledger, ▲ tokenization of accounts receivable as real-world assets (RWAs), and ▲ AI agent-based automation of trade operations.

The validation focused on assessing whether digitally connecting and automating transaction, settlement, and document review processes across global trade operations could improve operational efficiency and strengthen risk management. POSCO INTERNATIONAL provided the proof-of-concept environment based on its global trade network and real-world transaction data, while LG CNS was responsible for system architecture design and the validation of blockchain and AI technologies.

First, the two companies implemented a shared ledger system based on blockchain to enable real-time sharing of transaction information among headquarters, overseas subsidiaries, and trading partners. In the past, transaction information required repetitive verification during the contract and settlement processes as it was managed separately by country and subsidiary. Under the shared ledger-based structure, all transaction participants can access and verify the same transaction information in real time, reducing operational risks caused by information discrepancies while improving the efficiency of contractual and settlement processes.

In the area of tokenizing accounts receivable as RWAs, the company validated a framework that enables receivables generated from actual trade transactions to be issued, transferred, settled, traded, and managed as digital assets. The technical validation utilized Injective, a blockchain network specialized for the corporate finance environment.

Based on the Injective network’s architecture—which allows compliance, privacy, and regulatory response functions to be integrated into the protocol layer—the project also validated the control functions necessary for corporate finance. Specifically, the companies verified the feasibility of implementing permission-based asset management, Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) procedures, investor eligibility screening, and asset transfer restrictions, while assessing whether blockchain technology could be applied to the entire process of inter-company accounts receivable transactions.

An AI agent capable of automatically reading documents and detecting errors was applied to the review of letters of credit (LCs) and trade documents to evaluate its ability to reduce variations in review quality resulting from differences in the proficiency of personnel and to minimize human errors.

Global trade operations require a high level of expertise, as the required documents and procedures vary by country, trading partner, and contract terms. In particular, even minor errors, such as typographical mistakes in letters of credit (LCs) or omitted clauses, can result in payment delays or even payment rejections. The evaluation confirmed that utilizing the AI agent during the preliminary review stage enables the early identification of potential risks and helps reduce variations in work quality across overseas subsidiaries.

“This PoC is significant as it demonstrated the practical applicability of AI and blockchain technologies in a real-world trade environment,” said a POSCO INTERNATIONAL official. “We plan to finalize our pilot operation plans in the second half of this year, focusing on areas where the PoC confirmed meaningful improvements in operational efficiency.”

▲ POSCO INTERNATIONAL’s headquarters in Songdo.

POSCO DX is embarking on the joint development of Physical AI-based robot intelligence technology applicable to various robots for performing high-risk and high-intensity tasks in industrial sites, together with NC AI, an AI specialist company.

POSCO DX (CEO SHIN Min suk) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for the implementation of an AI-based autonomous robot work system on the 29th at NC AI (CEO LEE Youn soo)’s Pangyo headquarters, with the attendance of officials from both companies, including YOON Suk-june, Head of POSCO DX’s Robot Automation Center, and KIM Min jae, CTO of NC AI. We plan to proceed with the implementation of a robot foundation model that combines POSCO DX’s robot simulation and control technologies with NC AI’s AI models.

Under this agreement, POSCO DX plans to perform motion planning and control simulation verification for robots to be applied to industrial sites, and to configure and provide a digital twin- based virtual test environment to ensure stable operation of the robots.

NC AI is responsible for developing AI models for the Robot Foundation. By collecting and analyzing industrial site data to enable robots to understand various work situations, the company plans to enhance robots’ decision-making capabilities and operational accuracy by developing and applying Vision Language Action(VLA) models based on this data. Furthermore, it will collaborate with POSCO DX on establishing and stabilizing a digital twin-based VLA simulation environment.

It is expected that when the Robot Foundation model jointly developed by the two companies is applied, industrial robots will be able to simultaneously understand visual information and verbal instructions to interpret and judge work situations on their own. This means that by enabling flexible responses to various variable factors that frequently occur in industrial settings, such as deviations in workpiece position or differences in interfaces between equipment, robots can handle even non-standard tasks that were previously limited by the rule-based control of existing industrial robots.

Through this, VLA- based robots are expected to not only replace hazardous or repetitive tasks previously handled by human workers but also naturally establish a collaborative system with other industrial robots on-site, thereby significantly enhancing safety, precision, and efficiency in manufacturing environments.

POSCO DX is continuously advancing industrial robot automation technology, centered around its Robot Automation Center. By implementing simulation-based verification and establishing standardized models, the company is enhancing the stability and deployment speed of industrial robots. Furthermore, by developing a heterogeneous robot operation platform, it is strengthening operational efficiency through the integrated management of various robots and real-time data analysis. This collaboration is significant as it represents an attempt to advance physical AI technology in industrial robot automation to the next level by combining POSCO DX’s foundational technologies with NC AI’s advanced AI capabilities.

YOON Suk june, Head of the Robot Automation Center at POSCO DX, stated, “Through continuous collaboration with companies possessing specialized technology, we are internalizing core solutions such as robot control and operation platforms and elevating the level of automation technology for high-risk and high-intensity sites.” He added, “We expect this collaboration to confirm the potential for utilizing general-purpose robots in industrial settings.”

KIM Min jae, CTO of NC AI, said, “General-purpose robot technology is rapidly evolving into next-generation AI technology applicable in various industrial environments.” He continued, “Through our collaboration with POSCO DX, we will strengthen our competitiveness in robot AI technology and jointly lead the general-purpose physical AI ecosystem targeting the global market.”

Recently, demand for humanoid robots in China has surged, leading to a wave of large-scale supply contracts. In response, Morgan Stanley released its Humanoid Robots 100 report, projecting that the global humanoid robots market could reach as much as USD 60 trillion within the next decade. This article examines the potential of humanoid robots as an industrial mega trend, global technology development strategies, and Korea’s approach to this emerging sector.

Senior Researcher Jeoung-Heon Woo POSCO Research Institute

Humanoid Robots in History

Humanoid robots—machines designed to resemble humans—have appeared throughout history, sometimes as loyal assistants, other times as perceived threats. Examples include the bronze giant Talos from ancient Greek and Roman mythology, the water-clock-powered automaton of China’s Han Dynasty, and Leonardo da Vinci’s “robot knight” from the Renaissance. Across ancient civilizations, human-like machines have emerged in various forms.

Interest in humanoid robots has endured for centuries, accompanied by caution over potential risks. Notably, science fiction writer Isaac Asimov introduced the Three Laws of Robotics in his 1942 short story Runaround, raising philosophical questions about the relationship between humans and machines.

The rapid advancement of AI in recent years suggests that robotics may evolve toward a humanoid robots-centered future. While a “machine” is generally defined as a tool designed to perform production activities using power, a “robot” is an intelligent machine capable of making autonomous decisions under certain conditions.

Modern humanoid robots go further, combining advanced AI with a human-like form factor—a body structure modeled on human anatomy—allowing them to learn work methods, optimize performance, and actively assist in a wide range of human activities.

Physical AI: Extending Intelligence into the Real World

The concept of Physical AI is also gaining attention. Physical AI refers to AI embedded in physical devices—such as robots or autonomous vehicles—that interact directly with the real world. Traditional AI communicated with humans through digital interfaces like text or images, but Physical AI operates in real-world environments, collaborating with humans, perceiving surroundings, and responding accordingly. At CES 2025, NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang identified Physical AI as a major future growth driver, emphasizing NVIDIA’s role at the center of this technological shift.

ⓒ gettyimagesbank

Why the World is Paying Attention to Humanoid Robots

Humanoid robots are gaining social acceptance and technological attention for two main reasons: form factor suitability and socio-economic potential.

1. Form Factor Perspective

Robots designed for specific repetitive tasks benefit from specialized form factors. However, for Physical AI performing diverse, non-specialized actions in real-world environments, a human-like form factor is advantageous because our physical infrastructure is built for human proportions.

Door handles, stair dimensions, and control panel placements are all designed for human use. Humanoid robots can operate in these environments without costly infrastructure changes, offering high versatility. In contrast, having different standards for each form factor would be inefficient.

2. Socio-Economic Perspective

Humanoid robots’ human-like appearance enables a wide range of human-robot collaboration scenarios, extending beyond manufacturing into customer service, caregiving, education, and guidance. Recent advances in language processing, facial expression recognition, and gesture control have improved emotional engagement, signaling the evolution of robots into social entities.

However, psychological barriers remain. Masahiro Mori, Professor Emeritus at Tokyo Institute of Technology, proposed the Uncanny Valley theory, which suggests that robots that look too human can cause discomfort. This highlights the need to consider psychological acceptance and emotional distance alongside technical perfection.

Economically, humanoid robots are highly promising. Their development requires not only AI but also sensors, actuators, motion control systems, and energy supply technologies. These demands drive innovation across multiple industries, making humanoid robots development a potential growth engine for the future.

Humanoid Robots Industry Structure and Potential Players

Morgan Stanley’s February 2025 report divides the humanoid robots industry value chain into three core areas: Brain, Body, and Integrator, and identifies potential players in each.

• Brain: Combines software and hardware. Software includes AI models, data science, simulation technology, and vision software. Hardware includes memory and vision computing.
• Body: Includes actuators, components, motors, sensors, batteries, power semiconductors, analog semiconductors, aluminum casting, connectors, heat treatment, and automation systems.
• Integrator: Companies that assemble and integrate the brain and body into finished products. Potential players include Hyundai Motor, Boston Dynamics, Apple, Samsung Electronics, LG Electronics, Alibaba, Amazon, Naver, ABB, and KUKA.

The industry can also be categorized into core components and modules, finished product assembly, and service areas, with the service sector expected to see diverse business models emerge.

Global Technology Leaders: Tesla and NVIDIA and Hyundai Motor

▲ Tesla’s Optimus Gen 2 (Source:Tesla’s official YouTube channel)

The emerging humanoid robots industry is being led by Tesla and NVIDIA, each pursuing distinct strategies.

Tesla is leveraging its expertise in EV production and autonomous driving to develop Optimus, a humanoid robot intended to automate production lines. First unveiled at Tesla AI Day in 2021, Optimus has evolved to perform a variety of tasks. The 2024 Optimus 2 features 40 actuators—12 in the hands alone—allowing it to perform delicate actions such as cracking an egg. Tesla plans to enter the humanoid robots sales market in 2026.

NVIDIA, on the other hand, aims to dominate the humanoid robots “Brain” platform rather than build its own robot. Its Jetson Thor computer, based on the latest Blackwell GPU architecture, enables large-scale AI inference and vision-based decision-making directly on local devices—capabilities previously limited to server environments.

Tesla’s approach resembles Apple’s integrated hardware-software model, while NVIDIA’s strategy is akin to Android’s platform dominance.

▲ Hyundai Motor Company unveils humanoid robot “Atlas” at CES 2026(Source:Hyundai Motor Group official YouTube channel)

In addition to these global leaders, Hyundai Motor introduced its humanoid robot Atlas at CES 2026. Purpose-built for industrial and logistics operations, Atlas offers advanced mobility, precise manipulation capabilities, and seamless integration with Hyundai’s autonomous vehicle and smart factory ecosystems. The debut underscores Hyundai’s ambition to position itself as a key integrator in the humanoid robots value chain, capitalizing on its manufacturing expertise, robotics R&D, and global production footprint.

Securing Leadership in the Humanoid Robots Value Chain

Following smartphones and EVs, the world has lacked a clear driver of technological innovation—until humanoid robots emerged as the next catalyst. As a convergence of cutting-edge technologies, humanoid robots are recognized as a key area for future growth, though challenges remain in cost competitiveness and safety in human-machine collaboration.

Importantly, the humanoid robots industry’s impact will extend beyond AI and software into materials, components, and services. Development and standardization will require core components that meet both functionality and reliability, along with mass production capabilities. In the service sector, opportunities will arise in humanoid robots deployment, human-robot collaboration models, and humanoid robots training and operation.

In June 2025, the Korean government launched the K-Humanoid Robots Alliance, a national robotics and AI consortium involving over 40 domestic industry, academic, and research institutions. AI companies and experts are collaborating with universities to develop AI models for robot manufacturers, with field trials supported by demand-side companies such as POSCO Group.For example, Aei Robot has signed MOUs with POSCO E&C and HD Hyundai Mipo Shipyard to develop humanoid robots for construction sites and shipyards.

Humanoid robots have moved beyond simple robotics to become a central axis of next-generation industrial innovation. Understanding and responding strategically to the technological, industrial, and service trends surrounding their evolution is more important than ever.

Leading the spread of AX in the industrial field with applications such as coil unloading systems for tens of tons of steel products

POSCO DX (President Shim Min-suk) is accelerating its manufacturing AX (AI Transformation) by advancing its ‘Physical AI’ technology based on virtual environment simulation and applying it to the field one after another.

POSCO DX announced that it has developed an AI model that replicates a real-world factory in a virtual environment and established a ‘physical AI’ development system that efficiently supports AI learning and verification prior to field application. Facilities and sensors at industrial sites are greatly affected by the physical environment such as inertia, acceleration, and noise, and by implementing conditions that can be encountered in the real world in a virtual space and conducting various simulations, AI can learn the optimal movement of facilities.

At actual industrial sites, there were limitations in acquiring field data and testing AI models due to disruption of operations or safety and security reasons. POSCO DX utilized virtual environment simulation to solve these issues and is expected to significantly reduce the time and cost of AI model development and field application.

POSCO DX has implemented virtual environment simulation by adopting Isaac Sim of NVIDIA Omniverse platform. Isaac Sim is a SW that supports verification by simulating the physical environment precisely with actual sensors and systems in a virtual environment.

POSCO DX recently built a specialized optical laboratory in its Pangyo office building to further advance its ‘physical AI’. The optical laboratory is a space where the response of sensors and precision according to specifications, which are difficult to identify in AI simulations, are tested by artificially creating an environment similar to the actual site in terms of lighting, temperature, and movement. By reflecting the sensor data verified here in the AI ​​simulation, it is evaluated that the gap between the virtual and actual sites has been minimized, enabling more efficient simulations.

On the other hand, ‘Physical AI’, which was the topic of this year’s CES 2025, refers to AI that recognizes the surrounding environment and interacts with the real world by controlling physical systems. ‘Physical AI’By applying , AI can recognize and judge various operation situations and control and operate facilities directly with the on-site control system (PLC, Programmable Logic Controller), enabling unmanned operation. POSCO DX is leading the spread of ‘Physical AI’ in industrial sites by converging AI technology with existing IT (information technology) and OT(automation technology).

POSCO DX ‘physical AI’ to cranes that transport atypical products with different sizes and packaging forms.is prioritizing the application of In the first half of this year, POSCO DX developed an AI model to automate the unloading of coil products transported on trailers into cranes, and plans to spread it horizontally by conducting virtual test drives and applying it to the field.

Yoon Il-yong, head of POSCO DX AI Technology Development Center, emphasized, “POSCO DX is pursuing the implementation of ‘physical AI’ technology with the goal of ‘autonomous physical systemization of manufacturing facilities’ based on the convergence of AI, IT, and OT technologies,” and added, “We will strive to establish ourselves as a leading company in intelligent factories by advancing ‘physical AI’ utilizing physical development methodologies such as virtual environment simulation.”

▲POSCO DX AI researchers are testing the physical environment, such as light and distance, of the coil loading and unloading site in the optical laboratory of the Pangyo building.

Steel is strong. It’s solid and durable, which makes it an exquisite material in manufacturing automobiles and other vehicles. The sustainability of steel is another significant factor that shines a light on the future of transportation.

Worldsteel spotlights the maritime sector — among the many types of vehicles — and demonstrates how steel made a difference. See the details of how the combination of steel and latest technology is paving the future of the industry — POSCO Newsroom presents worldsteel, “Artificial Intelligence, Steel and the Future of Shipping.”

Technology is rapidly transforming operations across all industries — from retail to healthcare to real estate — and the implications of these changes are significant. Developments in road vehicle technologies for cars and trucks seem to hit the headlines constantly. But these aren’t the only type of vehicle with an eye on the future.

Welcome to the age of autonomous shipping — made possible by the powerful combination of artificial intelligence and steel. The maritime sector, like so many others, is experiencing unprecedented disruption. Experts are now in agreement that automation is a necessity if the industry is to stay relevant in the decades ahead.

While modernisation always presents challenges, the opportunities on the horizon for the shipping industry are enormous. If shipping companies can successfully implement fresh solutions based on technologies like artificial intelligence, they will be able to streamline and enhance their operations. The result will be valuable benefits such as cost-savings, better routing, and the ability to identify new business areas.

Tomorrow’s ships will be complex hubs filled with sensors and data-capturing devices with significantly enhanced connectivity capabilities thanks to improvements to satellite technologies. When it comes to the design, building and testing of vessels and their components, cloud technologies will also have a big impact.

Perhaps the most important potential outcomes, however, relate to the environmental impact of shipping. Shipping is already the world’s most energy-efficient means of transport, but there is still work to be done in terms of energy efficiency and carbon footprint. Automation technologies are set to have a notable positive impact on sustainability outcomes for the industry.

For example, more efficient shipping routes which use less fuel or alternative energy sources have the potential to minimise or eliminate carbon emissions entirely. At the same time, making improvements to shipping practices and routes can reduce the number of polluting road vehicles needed to transport cargo once it arrives at a destination — another sustainability win for the sector.

l The Future of Shipping

An example of the future of shipping in action is Yara Birkeland, an autonomous, electric and zero-emissions container vessel from Norway, which is expected to launch in 2020. Within its initial two years, Yara Birkeland will move from manned to autonomous operations, marking a world-first for the sector. The ship will directly replace around 40,000 truck journeys per year, reducing NO_x and CO₂ emissions significantly.

In the Yara Birkeland project and others like it, steel has an important part to play, acting as a key enabler for strides forward in shipping automation and other future-facing technologies. Vessels like the Yara Birkeland make use of steel throughout their designs, including the panelling of the hull, the engines, and on-board solar panel systems.

As autonomous shipping takes off, more and more companies are entering the race and hoping to get in on the action. For example, a “future-proof” ship concept called Electric Blue was revealed by leading brand Rolls-Royce in 2017. It includes steel-built modular components that can easily be replaced or upgraded as necessary in the future, as well as featuring a clean design focused on low building and maintenance costs.

The future of shipping is fast approaching, and it will only continue to gain pace throughout 2020 and beyond. As the technologies powering the world’s most important industries change, steel remains at the heart of helping to create greater business efficiencies, positive sustainability outcomes, and sophisticated, cutting-edge design.

Images: Yara; Rolls Royce Marine, Flickr

The original content published on the worldsteel’s ‘Our Stories’ section is available at: https://stories.worldsteel.org/innovation/artificial-intelligence-steel-and-the-future-of-shipping/

However, the Lighthouse Factory POSCO does not stop at simply leading the introduction of the Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies. What’s more? Here are the three factors that make POSCO stand out.

① Challenging the Impossible — POSCO’s Smart Blast Furnace

An unmanned storehouse or an automotive parts assembly factory run by robots could be the first thing that comes to mind when one hears the word ‘AI factory.’ Another might think that Artificial Intelligence could be applied only in specific areas, like the information technology industry. A blast furnace is a gigantic facility with a height equivalent to a 40-story building. On the inside, it is full of a mixture of solids and liquids, so turning it off or ‘looking’ inside seems impossible. Due to these many factors, applying AI to a blast furnace and making it ‘smart’ was considered nearly impossible.

POSCO stood up to this challenge. In 2016, the term ‘Fourth Industrial Revolution’ began to take its place in the industry. POSCO was one step ahead, but not in a hurry. It moved on to Step-by-step digitization and smartization with caution and care. At first, POSCO tried to do this with the technology of a global IT company but did not get satisfactory results. The new technology alone wasn’t enough. However, when POSCO’s unique expertise, intuition, and knowledge — along with its field experts — were combined with it, the advanced AI blast furnace could be born.

▲ The AI blast furnace is made with the combination of vast, sophisticated data, and the experience and intuition of POSCO experts. Deep learning enables optimal results and automates them to reduce human errors and increase productivity.

POSCO field experts — the technicians and engineers — standardized the main variables that determine the state of the blast furnace into Big Data. They enabled the blast furnace to conduct deep learning to extract optimal result value by imitating their know-hows accumulated for over 30 years. Facilities were also steadily improved so that the IoT could replace the manual work. As a result, POSCO boosted the daily production of molten iron by 240 tons. Additionally, workers could focus on advanced work for more creative performance. POSCO saved 250 billion KRW by carrying out 321 smart tasks — including the AI blast furnace — for the past four years.

Through the AI blast furnace, POSCO was able to break away from the old concepts of steel mills. POSCO’s “Technology for the automated control of blast furnace based on deep learning AI” is currently registered and protected as the National Core Technology of Korea (August 2019). POSCO is currently establishing smart factories not only in the blast furnace but also in the overall steelmaking, rolling, and surface treatment process and is creating high-quality smart steelworks.

② POSCO Smart Factory: A Collaboration Of Academia, SMEs, And Start-ups

There is another special feature behind the Lighthouse Factory POSCO — the collaboration of academia, SMEs, and startups in establishing the Smart Factory. As seen below, the World Economic Forum acknowledged POSCO’s effort in forming the collaboration model.

▲ A World Economic Forum article stating the reason POSCO was chosen as a Lighthouse Factory.

POSCO is actively cultivating AI experts in-house and is working with POSTECH for the cause. POSTECH has the best faculty of the artificial intelligence field in Korea. POSCO AI Expert Course, which began in 2017, is a program where selected outstanding POSCO personnel receive training from POSTECH professors. This course has resulted in more than 60 POSCO AI experts in three years. These AI experts are working to build smart factories in the work field.

The collaboration included SMEs and start-ups as well. POSCO developed the AI blast furnace with ‘ECMiner’ since 2016. ECMiner is an SME specializing in data mining*. It created a system that can automatically identify, analyze, and maintain the combustion condition of the blast furnace by combining its data mining technology with POSCO’s accumulated data. In the past, the combustion status was left to the manual labor of workers, checking through the wind hole, and judging by experience. However, with this system, the data can now be taken care of automatically. It also maintains the appropriate combustion level of the blast furnace, which reduces the amount of coal injected. This enables an overall cost reduction.
*Data mining: A technology that looks for hidden, valid, and potentially useful patterns in huge data sets, extracts feasible information, and makes decisions accordingly.

The collaboration resulted in a win-win for both POSCO and ECMiner. POSCO succeeded in creating an AI furnace with Korean technology, and ECMiner also benefited from the experience of processing huge amounts of data at POSCO. All academia, SMEs, and start-ups that participated in the building of POSCO Smart Factory, including ECMiner, can help construct a new one in another factory based on technology experienced at POSCO. This is expected to accelerate the proliferation of smart factories in Korea.

③ Sharing With The Industrial Ecosystem

The Lighthouse Factory POSCO shines brighter for the third factor. On January 9, Korean president Jae-in Moon visited POSCO Pohang works.  POSCO CEO Jeong-Woo Choi said:

“With the Smart Factory, POSCO has reduced production cost of 250 billion KRW for four years. And to relieve the wage gap with business partners, POSCO has extended an additional 270 billion KRW to outsourcing expenses for the last three years. Increased outsourcing expenses raises overall costs. However, POSCO is offsetting this through endless innovation. Through these measures, POSCO aims to foster the competitiveness of the whole industrial ecosystem, and then, in turn, enhance national competitiveness. POSCO’s management philosophy lies here.”

▲ Image source: KTV Youtube video

POSCO willingly shared the achievements of the smart factory project to solve the real problems many partner companies face. At first glance, this might simply seem like a ‘generous side’ of a large company, but in reality, this wasn’t an easy step. POSCO made this possible with its capacity earned through intense internal innovation. This is a good example showing how POSCO innovation isn’t just about POSCO.

POSCO went on to expand the benefits to SMEs who do not have direct business with POSCO. With the support service to build Smart Factory for shared growth, POSCO has provided the Smart Factory technology to 110 SMEs last year alone — 59 of which are companies with no direct business. The service will support 1,000 SMEs by 2023, with no limits to the subject. This is expected to increase the competitiveness of SMEs, which will, in turn, improve productivity and create new jobs.

▲ POSCO’s Smart Factory project not only increases POSCO’s competitiveness but also empowers the entire industrial ecosystem. It also helps in resolving current issues like narrowing the wage gap and creating new jobs.

This is what POSCO’s innovation is all about. The willingness to share with something that was earned hard. POSCO the lighthouse factory is indeed shining the light to a brighter future of the manufacturing powerhouse Korea.

POSCO Pohang Works was selected as the ‘Lighthouse Factory’ for spearheading innovation in manufacturing by the World Economic Forum (WEF) in July last year, opening a new horizon for smart blast furnaces. The WEF consultant, who visited Pohang Works for site review, showed great interest in the live monitor-controlling of the blast furnace. This complex and huge furnace is controlled by pairing the expertise of POSCO workers with AI technology. On January 9, South Korea’s President Jae-in Moon visited the site and watched the world’s smartest furnace at work.

POSCO is also striving to strengthen its industrial ecosystem by sharing its Smart Factory platform with business partners — including SMEs. Let’s take a closer look at how POSCO is working on its Smart Factory and pursuing Corporate Citizenship.

l POSCO’s Blast Furnace — At the Forefront of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

Since the term ‘Fourth Industrial Revolution’ was first used at the 2016 Davos Forum, it has become the mainstream of all industries. Companies started working on to quickly acquire the core technologies of the Fourth Industrial Revolution — like Big Data, Artificial Intelligence, and the Internet of Things. Twice a year, Davos has been designating factories that are leading innovation in manufacturing as ‘Lighthouse Factories’. Last July, POSCO became the first South Korean company to be announced as a lighthouse factory.

The No.2 blast furnace at Pohang Works could be called the core of the Fourth Industrial Revolution Technology. POSCO embarked on the ‘digitization’ of the blast furnace in 2016 when the term ‘Fourth Industrial Revolution’ came about. Since the blast furnace was originally dependent on field workers’ heuristic knowledge, by ‘digitization’, POSCO worked on standardizing all accumulated data.

The blast furnace is a gigantic facility with a height of 110 meters — equivalent to a 40-story building. Inside the blast furnace flows a mixture of solids and liquids whose temperature rises as high as 2300℃. All these factors make it impossible to ‘look’ inside the blast furnace, hence, digitizing the variables of this huge blast furnace was more complicated and difficult than expected. The seemingly impossible task of ‘standardizing data’ of human knowledge marked the start of the smart furnace.

The accumulated data became the base of big data. Since 2017, POSCO has been working on deep learning with big data. Through deep learning, the blast furnace can self learn from the numerous cases given. This process called, “Smartization” enables the system to predict and control the potential variables, and to derive optimal results. The IoT has also accelerated the establishment of smart furnaces. In the past, multiple factors such as molten iron temperature, the amount of fuel and raw materials, and so on were left to the manual labor of workers. However, through IoT, high-definition cameras and sensors can take care of the data automatically.

▲ The internal temperature of the furnace can go up to 2,300℃. In the inside, several materials like iron ore and coke are mixed, causing various chemical reactions. It’s like a huge pressure vessel that’s 40 stories high. POSCO succeeded in data standardizing and automating the blast furnace.

As a result, Pohang No.2 Blast Furnace has become capable of self-control and prediction to an artificial intelligence level, giving it the name, ‘AI blast furnace’. With the experience of experts who have worked for more than 30 years at ironmaking, the smart furnace boosted the daily production of molten iron by 240 tons. Annually this amounts to 85,000 tons with which automakers can produce 85,000 more cars.

There is always a concern that follows these kinds of changes, “Won’t AI make people lose jobs?” But the answer is “No.” Instead of looking into the furnace all day, workers can focus on more advanced work with their Domain Knowledge. This enhances the possibility of more creative performance.

l What Makes POSCO’s Smart Factory Special?

Currently, leading global companies are adopting the smart factory platform. Then what makes POSCO’s Smart Factory more special? The answer lies in the platform established for the ‘Continuous Processing’ — a special term of steelwork. POSCO doesn’t stop at applying this platform to just furnaces. It has gone on to extend these smart factories to the overall steelmaking process. PosFrame, the engine of POSCO’s Smart Factory, is its unique factory platform specified for continuous manufacturing processes.

The steelmaking process is continuous, running smoothly from production planning to delivering the final product to the customer. Therefore, applying the smart factory platform to steel works is quite challenging — with a much bigger scale — than applying to a single factory that produces a single item. Pohang Works is massive in size, with hundreds of factories manufacturing hundreds of different steel products. In such an environment, data from each site should be gathered, organized, and standardized so that anyone can process it. This is one of the main functions of PosFrame.

Let’s say that the steelmaking process starts from A and ends at Z. When PosFrame is applied completely to the steelworks, it is possible to trace the cause of an issue that occurred in Z to A.

▲ A Smart Factory operation concept in an integrated steelwork. The cause of an issue occurring at the later part of the process can be automatically tracked to the earlier part of the process, diagnosed, and resolved.

l POSCO’s Technology For All Business Partners to Share

How is Corporate Citizen POSCO dealing with this unique technology? POSCO isn’t planning on making this technology exclusive. Instead, POSCO is working on expanding the smart factory technology to business partners including SMEs.

Dongkuk Industries, which has factories in Pohang and Siheung, is a company that processes POSCO’s hot rolled steel into high-quality cold rolled steel. This product is then supplied to companies that produce automotive parts. At Dongkuk Industries, steel goes under the pickling process, where hydrochloric acid (HCl) is used to remove scale on the product surface. This takes a great deal of time since each customer demands different quality requirements. Since it is nearly impossible to match each requirement, Dongkuk Industries pickled all materials even though each POSCO hot rolled steel had different scales. Naturally, productivity decreased, and this is where POSCO’s Smart Factory technology stepped in.

First, through PosFrame, POSCO sends predicted data showing where and how much scale is on the supplied hot rolled steel. This predicted data is received at the “AI for optimal pickling” in Dongkuk Industries. In the past, the pickling conditions were calculated manually by workers, but now this AI automatically extracts the optimum value based on the data obtained from PosFrame. After pickling, the resulting data is passed back to PosFrame. As POSCO hot rolled steel is processed into high-quality cold rolled steel here, its data are accumulated in PosFrame as big data and advanced through repeated learning. The data on both sides are exchanged repetitively, enabling the production of an optimized product — as if produced in a connected plant. The application of the Smart Factory in Dongguk Industries minimized the time required for the pickling process while securing product quality required by the customer. This increased productivity by 60%, and high-quality material sales by 1.5 times.

▲ Dongkuk Industries established a Smart Factory with POSCO. (From the top left clockwise) the front view of the Pohang factory; the pickling line; the hydrogen furnace; and the wide shear line. (Photo credit: Dongkuk Industries)

POSCO is also concentrating on Smart Factory consulting for SMEs. This service isn’t limited to direct customers but expanded to other business partners, including secondary customers. POSCO has engaged in support service to build Smart Factory for shared growth with the Ministry of SMEs and Startups — establishing Smart Factory in 110 companies until last year. At the same time, POSCO also provides ‘Smartification Consulting’ to enhance competence, thus, delivering advanced field expertise through POSCO’s unique innovation technique QSS(Quick Six Sigma). By 2023, POSCO is to contribute 20 billion KRW to empower 1,000 companies.

POSCO is operating seven major programs for shared growth, and some of them are as follows — ‘Open Purchase’ offering fair trading opportunities; ‘Proper Payment On Time’ abolishing the lowest price bidding system and giving payment in cash on time; ‘Corporate Citizenship Job Matching’ training job seekers and arranging employment at partner companies. Additionally, POSCO has aided 1 trillion KRW, leading the way in establishing a Venture Fund of 2 trillion KRW, and a Venture Valley to support start-up activities for the youth.

POSCO has become the “lighthouse” of the global manufacturing industry with its Smart Factory. And in Korea, POSCO is actively working as a guide of Smart Factory for business partners.

l POSCO’s ‘Deep Learning’ Blast Furnace

POSCO embarked on the journey of smart technology back in 2016, the year when a super AI AlphaGo beat Se-Dol Lee, human champion of the game Go.

As disheartening as it was, Lee’s defeat became an awakening moment for Korea and an opportunity for POSCO to start digging deep on the relatively new concept, artificial intelligence. From that moment on, POSCO accelerated its research into AI and deep learning collaborating with top university researchers across the country to develop smart blast furnace.

The core of smart blast furnace technology is, ‘Deep Learning.’ Deep learning discovers patterns amongst countless random data utilizing it to predict the possible outcome just as human intelligence categorizes random items.

Let’s say there are thousands of random pictures – pictures of cats and dogs. A computer reads, analyzes, and categorizes the data from each picture, so the next time it ‘sees’ similar photos, it will recognize, determine and predict the correct pattern, thus identifying the picture as either cat or dog. Lots of companies are already utilizing this technology to analyze massive volumes of audio-visual data.

l What Is a ‘Smart’ Blast Furnace?

A blast furnace is a gigantic structure of 110 meters in height, taller than an average 40-story building – it makes molten iron. Inside the blast furnace flows a mixture of solids and liquids whose temperature rises as high as 2300℃. Since blast furnaces operate 24/7 non-stop, it’s difficult to ‘look’ inside a furnace.

However, the No.2 blast furnace of Pohang Steelworks is changing the game of steelmaking business. The ‘smart’ Pohang No. 2 furnace utilizes deep learning with an automotive system that monitors and auto-controls the inside conditions of the furnace.

POSCO started by defining the five variables that affect the conditions of a furnace. Then, countless random data was digitized for standardization. All the major data which used to be controlled heuristically is now measured live and become digital data paving a new path so the furnace can start learning deeply.

After the digitization completed, POSCO took on smartization process to establish a system to predict and automate the condition of the blast furnace. The key distinction between digitization and smartization is that smartization allows prediction. Because the data is so massive – over 1,000 types – the smartization process assigns algorithm appropriate for each data and perform analysis-prediction-control. Based on the rendered result, the system determines whether the inside conditions are good or bad – or can cause problems.

To put it simply, a smart blast 1) learns countless live-collected cases and data; 2) self-assesses the conditions of inputs (i.e. raw materials and fuels) and the furnace condition; 3) predicts the result of furnace operation; 4) automatically pre-controls the operating conditions; 5) yields the best combination result with minimum error.

l AI Furnace, Smarter than Humans

Every day, the visual data generated from the smart blast furnace daily reach up to hundreds of gigabytes. The smart furnace learns this massive amount of data and is getting smarter every day. What are the potential implications of this vast learning?

Before the smartization, the field employees used to personally measure the blast temperature every two hours, but now the bottom sensor of the furnace live-records the molten iron temperature. Not only does it live-record the current temperature, it also predicts the temperatures inside the furnace an hour ahead auto-adjusting the temperature of hot metal accordingly.

Furthermore, highly consistent algorithm assesses the inside condition of the furnace utilizing the thousands of images collected from the cameras installed on the tuyere nozzles. Based on the assessment, the smart furnace auto-controls the charging actions of iron ores and coke.

What about the skull? It’s layers of adhesives that stick to the furnace wall. To a furnace, it’s a cancer-like lump. What the smart system does is to analyze the images collected through furnace thermometers, sketch the overall shape of the skull, subsequently auto-controlling the charging mode.

Image source: ‘Shipment standby’ – By Tae-Ha Woo (20th Korean National Steel Day photo contest)

Currently, the Pohang No.2 blast furnace is the testing ground for this cutting-edge technology – the smart furnace boosted the daily production of molten iron by 240 tons. Annually this amounts to 85,000 tons with which automakers can produce 85,000 more cars. It is also a huge energy saver reducing the energy per ton of molten iron production.

One of the biggest achievements of the smart blast furnace is having stabilized the furnace management process through AI auto-control.

For the last three years, POSCO completed developing the auto-control system for each component of the blast furnace. Now the company is focusing on comprehensive integration. Going forward, POSCO plans to expand the applications to the Pohang No.3 and No.4 furnaces – they both have bigger internal capacity (5,600 ㎥) than the current No.2 furnace (2,550 ㎥).

POSCO took a giant step by adopting the world’s first thinking blast furnace. With time, more data will be collected, which will improve the quality and efficiency of molten iron production. In the era of the Fourth Revolution, POSCO will continue leading the way towards the smartization of steelworks across the globe.

▲Karen Chupka, the Executive Vice President for the Consumer Technology Association (CTA), gives a keynote speech at CES 2019 (Source:CES)

On January 10th, the world’s largest trade show, Consumer Electronics Show (CES) wrapped up its four-day events in Las Vegas. CES was attended by over 4,500 companies leading the IT, electronics and mobility industries. Altogether over 180,000 individuals from more than 150 countries were present at this global stage for innovation.

Steve Koenig, Vice President of the CTA, started off the CES 2019 Trends to Watch session by discussing key industry trends marked by the term, ‘data age’ where new technologies like artificial intelligence (AI), 5G mobile communications, autonomous navigation, and 8K*, as well as Virtual Reality, will become crucial.
* 8K resolution refers to any screen with around 8000 pixels width. 8K UHD is the current highest ultra high definition television (UHDTV) resolution in digital with the 7680×4320 pixels resolution.

In recent years, so many automakers are attending CES that the convention earned the nickname, “Las Vegas Motor Show.” This year was no exception. Many leading automobile companies showcased their latest technology like autonomous mobility and intelligent connectivity.

At CES, POSTECH students’ autonomous navigating robots created a buzz. The solution was devised by Polaris3D, a company established by the graduate students of POSTECH’s Creative IT Engineering Department and led by CEO In-Bum Kwak.

┃Polaris3D’s Solution Creates 3D Maps with No Extra Infrastructure

In 2016, a group of POSTECH graduate students gathered to form Polaris3D, a venture company with one clear goal in mind: to create an affordable yet sophisticated autonomous navigating solution. Since its foundation, Polaris3D has been winning contests after contests, and since 2018, the company established an office space at Pohang Center for Creative Economy & Innovation.

At the CES conference this year, Polaris3D showcased technology that allows autonomous navigation from indoors through the simple installation of a program on the robot, just like installing an application on a computer. With this simple robot autonomous navigating solution, there is no need to build a separate infrastructure deemed crucial for autonomous navigation.

Until now, utilizing indoor autonomous-navigating robot required extra devices to be installed, to allow UWB (Ultra Wideband) wireless connection or Wi-Fi. With Polaris3D’s solution, however, no additional equipment is necessary.

Polaris3D’s program allows the robot to self-drive to create maps. Based on the map it has created, the robot estimates its own position and travels to the target point, a destination.

While the current SLAM (Simultaneous Localization and Mapping) technology requires a massive amount of computation, Polaris3D utilizes localization technology which can be used for small robots and drones. It can move within a relatively confined space.

This year, Polaris3D will market its solutions to robotics companies and laboratories who need indoor autonomous navigation. Furthermore, the company plans to cooperate with various robotics companies to utilize their solutions onto logistics robots or robot forklifts applying their autonomous-navigating robot solution that doesn’t necessitate additional infrastructure.

┃Industries Vie for Next-Generation Innovations

▲CES 2019 (Source: CES)

Besides Polaris3D’s technology for autonomous mobility, several Korean companies showcased a variety of new technologies at this year’s CES. On the first day of the convention, the products that gathered most attention were Samsung and LG Electronics new TV displays, which far exceeded the limits of current TV displays.

On the first day of CES 2019, Samsung Electronics unveiled the world’s smallest 75-inch micro-LED screen. As the screen size of micro LED becomes smaller, the size and spacing of the device become smaller too, which makes creating a 75-inch display all the more challenging, but Samsung pulled it off. LG Electronics, on the other hand, revealed the world’s first 65-inch rollable OLED TV. Depending on whether you want to watch the TV or not, the TV can be rolled up and down from a cabinet with built-in speakers and all the connectivity ports.

Samsung Electronics also introduced ‘New Bixby’ a smarter artificial intelligence platform as well as a series of robots like Samsung Bot Care, Samsung Bot Air, and Samsung Bot Retail. LG Electronics debuted LG HomeBrew, a capsule-based craft beer-making machine that allows in-home production of five distinctive, richly-flavored beers. LG also showcased intelligent service robot, LG Cloi SuitBot, that supports the lower body to reduce stress when lifting and bending.