Daedong to Develop Agricultural Robots in Saemangeum, Build Industrial Hub with Hyundai Motor Company

[Financial News] Daedong is set to develop physical AI (artificial intelligence) robots for use in agriculture. It is pursuing a project with Hyundai Motor Group and others to establish an industrial hub in Saemangeum capable of supporting everything from agricultural robot development to field testing.
According to the agricultural machinery industry on the 4th, Daedong attended a meeting held the previous day at the National Assembly Members' Office Building, where it discussed plans for developing and commercializing agricultural robot technology with Jeonbuk Special Self-Governing Province, Gimje, Hyundai Motor Group and others. The meeting was titled “A Meeting on Building the Saemangeum Physical AI Robot Farm Factory.”
The project will establish a 21-hectare agricultural physical AI industrial hub in the Saemangeum area of Gimje. It is planned with a total budget of 300 billion won, and its core aim is to bring the entire process—from manufacturing agricultural robots and training their AI to testing them on actual farms—together in one location.
While conventional smart farms have focused on automatically controlling growing conditions such as temperature and humidity, the Robot Farm Factory aims to have robots recognize crop conditions and perform farm work—including harvesting, pest control and transport—based on AI decisions. The approach is to incorporate robot routes and working conditions from the farm-design stage, then use data collected in the field to train robots and improve their performance.
The project will run from 2028 through 2032. During that period, it aims to collect at least 1 million farm-work experience data points, raise the robot labor participation rate (RLR) to at least 70%, and reduce working hours for key farming tasks by at least 30%.
Around 30 people attended the meeting, including Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker Park Jie-won, representatives of Jeonbuk Special Self-Governing Province and Gimje, the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, Hyundai Motor Group, and universities and research institutions. Hyundai Motor Group proposed cooperation in areas including the joint development and manufacture of agricultural robots, building a parts supply chain, energy supply and agricultural product distribution. Daedong Group presented its plans for the project, drawing on its capabilities in agricultural robot development and manufacturing.
Daedong is expanding its business beyond agricultural machinery manufacturing into areas such as autonomous agricultural machinery and agricultural robots. For this project, it plans to explore ways to contribute to robot-centered farm design and the development of AI-based autonomous operating systems, leveraging technology and agricultural data accumulated through its agricultural machinery development work.
Daedong CEO Won Yoo-hyun said, “Agricultural physical AI will go beyond automating agricultural machinery and create a new agricultural paradigm in which robots perform farm work and operate farms.”
[email protected] Lee Ju-mi Reporter