Kwon Jae-han, the head of the Rural Development Administration, visited the HD Hyundai Global R&D Center in Seongnam, Gyeonggi-do, on March 26 to tour the research site and discuss plans for cooperative development.
The Rural Development Administration is actively engaging in collaborations for robotic technology to secure future competitiveness in agriculture. On this day, Kwon visited the HD Hyundai Global R&D Center located in Seongnam City, Gyeonggi Province, to inspect the development site of industrial robots and discuss cooperative development strategies.
HD Hyundai Robotics is a leading domestic company developing factory automation solutions, including industrial and collaborative robots. During the visit, Kwon assessed the current state of industrial robot technology and stressed the importance of technological collaboration to address labor shortages in rural areas.
Kwon introduced the newly established Agricultural Robotics Division under the National Academy of Agricultural Science and shared the direction and goals of research into robotic technology specialized for agriculture. He remarked, “If Hyundai Robotics’s robotic technology combines with the Rural Development Administration’s agricultural expertise, we could advance the era of ‘one farm, one robot.’”
The Rural Development Administration is presently developing and distributing robots to replace repetitive and laborious farm tasks such as pest control and transport. They plan to collaborate with the private sector to develop intelligent robots that can be applied to more complex tasks like harvesting and pruning in the future.
This visit is part of efforts to promote digital transformation in agriculture through technological collaboration and to find practical solutions to rural labor shortages exacerbated by aging populations.