By fining an opportunity to lead the international standardization of network robot, Korea makes ready for a moment of developing network robot, which would be a new driving force of growth.

On Thursday 6, Ministry of Information and Communication (MIC) announced that it concluded a contract with International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in order to promote the international standardization of network robot. To do so, they plan to organize a specialist group and jointly hold workshops.

As a result, the MIC will have carried out activities, like investigating network robot technology and market trend, publishing reports about the standardization, organizing workshops and specialist groups, and listening from specialists through their websites, in partnership with the ITU until August, 2008.

Korea who stunned the world in 2003 by becoming the first to come up with the idea of network robot has endeavored to strengthen the competitiveness of intelligent robot industry by developing technologies, testing the possibility of robot industry though exhibitions, and establishing nation-wide infrastructures enable to provide various services.

It is the network robot, the fusion of IT and robot technology, that minimizes the price and maximizes the function by providing robot¡¯s main functions through high performance server and simplifying its structure and function.

The idea of network robot has created an international concern in the sense that it can overcome technological limits of existing robots and transform the robot industry from the manufacturing industry to the service industry.

The necessity of robot standardization
With the advent of network robot that has made the competition in the robot industry stiff and various goods produced, the necessity of robot standardization has been raised in order to interwork between robots, a robot and heterogeneous terminals, a robot and networks.

Korea already founded the Forum for the Standardization of Intellectual Robot in 2005, made a cooperation with RUPI (Robot Unified Platform Initiative) for the field of developing robot S/W, and has participated in discussions for the standardization with International Organization for Standardization (IOS) and Object Management Group (OMG). For this time, it has a chance to lead the world standardization in partnership with ITU, an organization for international standardization, from the early stage of the standardization.

The cooperation between Korea and ITU is expected to lead the international network robot standardization and expand Korean domestic technologies to the world market. It is especially important in the current condition that global competition in the field of IT industry has been sharp and that the competition to pre-occupy the standardization has been keen.

The MIC also announced that it would try to uplift Korean IT industry and plan to provide the basis for overseas expansion of Korean enterprises through the cooperation with ITU that includes co-supports of digital broadcasting, like T-DMB, for African regions as well as the network robot standardization.