Top Engineering Joins Defense Autonomous Manufacturing System Consortium

Top Engineering announced on the 13th that it has been selected as the lead research and development company for the consortium focused on the 'Development of an AI-based autonomous manufacturing system for flexible production of communication and radar modules for advanced defense weapon systems.'
This project, with Hanwha Systems participating as the demand company, is a large-scale research and development (R&D) consortium aimed at automating the production of key components for advanced defense weapon systems. The total project budget is 11.2 billion KRW, and the project is scheduled to run until 2029.
Typically, manufacturing processes for defense products involve high labor dependency due to multi-variety, manual production, making it difficult to respond quickly to demand. The consortium aims to develop an AI factory platform for the flexible production of communication components for defense weapons, targeting a 20% increase in productivity, reducing process defect rates to below 0.5%, and shortening process lead time by 60%.
Supported by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE), the consortium includes Top Engineering as the lead research and development institution, along with Yuilrobotics, OnePredict, Agile Software, Gumi Electronics & Information Technology Research Institute (GERI), and the Industry-Academia Cooperation Foundation of Kyungwoon University. The project will develop technologies such as: manufacturing process data collection and analysis AI models using complex sensing technology; AI-based autonomous production process optimization; AI vision algorithm-based quality control; tool-change robot-based assembly, inspection, and flexible multi-variety production; and equipment anomaly detection, defect, and failure prediction based on manufacturing equipment and environment data.
Top Engineering will oversee the overall system development for AI-based autonomous manufacturing, including phase one development of unit process equipment and system integration, and phase two establishment and demonstration of the autonomous manufacturing system.
A Top Engineering representative stated, "By commercializing next-generation manufacturing systems that combine AI and robotics technologies, we aim to enhance the level of automation in Korea's defense industry and expect these technologies to eventually expand into the civilian manufacturing sector."

butter@fnnews.com Kang Kyung-rae Reporter