The Korea Herald

지나쌤

Oceans ministry to share marine technologies with local firms

By Yonhap

Published : Jan. 17, 2019 - 15:01

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South Korea's oceans ministry said Thursday it will share marine robotics technologies developed by state-run institutions with local companies to cut the costs of renting foreign machines.

The Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries and the Korea Institute of Ocean Science & Technology said they have decided to share three different marine construction robot technologies with local companies.


(Yonhap) (Yonhap)

By sharing the technology, the oceans ministry said local firms could save more than 10 billion won ($8.9 million) annually as they will no longer have to rent such equipment.

The ministry and the institution have invested 81.4 billion won since 2013, including creating a private fund of 13.1 billion won, on carrying out research projects to develop construction robots.

The URI-L robot is capable of performing various light tasks up to a depth of 2,500 meters, and the URI-T can install heavy objects such as cables at the same depth. The URI-R robot is capable of cracking rocks and making the ground even at 500-meter depths.

South Korea plans to account for 5 percent of the world's market for unmanned marine robots in 2030. (Yonhap)