Kakao Mobility Corp. to support integrated control of military drones and robots — joins forces with Army

[Financial News] Kakao Mobility Corp. is joining forces with the Army to expand civilian mobility technologies, including autonomous driving and robot control, into the defense sector. The plan is to step up cooperation on physical AI for defense by applying real-time mobile asset management and route optimization technologies to the military’s manned and unmanned combined combat systems.
According to industry sources on the 3rd, Kakao Mobility Corp. signed an “Agreement on Cooperation in Advanced Science and Technology, Including Integrated Control Technologies for Manned and Unmanned Combined Combat Systems” with the Army at Army Headquarters in Gyeryong, South Chungcheong Province. 
The agreement was arranged to establish a foundation for cooperation with private-sector companies in defense AI transformation (AX), as the Army pursues its transition into a science-and-technology military. In line with “Army Tiger Plus,” the Army’s direction for developing its manned and unmanned combined combat systems, the two sides plan to combine Kakao Mobility Corp.’s technologies with the Army’s dynamic data and operational expertise, and conduct demonstrations of physical AI for defense and integrated control technologies.
Kakao Mobility Corp. will apply its experience monitoring and deploying large numbers of mobile assets in real time to the military’s manned and unmanned integrated control system. The plan is to adapt to the defense environment technologies used in the civilian sector, including real-time route finding, mobility demand forecasting, fleet-based distributed control, and autonomous driving and robot control.
The two sides will establish testbeds for demonstrations in the defense sector, centered on the Army’s AX hubs in Pangyo and Daejeon, and jointly research an AI control platform tailored to defense. They will also work together to transition to a “one-to-many (1)” system that operates multiple unmanned systems—including drones, robots, and unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs)—through a single system.
In the long term, they plan to lay the groundwork for a “defense mobility operating system (OS)” that can organically integrate the command and control of diverse unmanned systems deployed on the battlefield. They will also pursue joint research and demonstrations to develop an Army-specific dispatch system and application, drawing on Kakao Mobility Corp.’s AI-powered dispatching, route optimization, real-time control, and transport management system (TMS) technologies.
Kakao Mobility Corp. CEO Alex Ryu said, “Drawing on the technological capabilities Kakao Mobility Corp. has built up, we will support innovation in future combat systems and help the Army secure world-leading competitiveness in physical AI for defense.” He added, “We will create a virtuous cycle in which the results of research and demonstrations conducted with the Army lead to advances in civilian technology, allowing the military and Korea’s physical AI ecosystem to grow together.”
[email protected] Jang Min-kwon Reporter