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KT join forces to launch next-generation service robots

South Korea’s leading telecommunications company KT Corp. has partnered with LG Electronics Inc. to develop and launch next-generation customer service robots.To get more news about RaaS, you can visit glprobotics.com official website.

The two companies on Wednesday signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on the research and development of advanced robots to be used in industrial workplaces and for customer services.

They also agreed to identify new business opportunities in Korea and abroad and cooperate in government-initiated robotics projects.

Since unveiling its first artificial intelligence (AI)-powered hotel butler robot in December 2019, KT has launched several customer service robots, including an autonomous robot for food and beverage deliveries, a care robot for senior people and a sanitizing robot for air purification.In June, the telecom giant said it will spend 12 trillion won ($9.5 billion) on its digital service platform Digico and other growth sectors such as artificial intelligence, robots, cloud, media and content until 2026.
LG Electronics is one of the conglomerates rushing to nurture their robotics businesses, encouraged by surging demand for robots in the service industry.

The company has strengths in technologies related to autonomous driving and robot manufacturing.The LG CLOi GuideBot provides customer services such as wayfinding and displaying flight details. It interacts with users by answering questions, accompanying people to their destination and displaying visual information about available facilities and services at the airport.
In 2017, LG made an investment in Korean wearable robot startup SG Robotics. The next year, it invested in San Francisco-based Bossa Nova Robotics as its first overseas robotics partner.

In 2018, it also acquired domestic robotics startup Robostar Co., which manufactures industrial robots and information technology component equipment.

In 2019, the company deployed N bots at the Novotel Ambassador Seoul Dongdaemun Hotels and Residences to distribute amenities to each room. The N bot is expanding its use cases to barista and care robots.In June of this year, LG agreed with Kakao Mobility Corp. to form a future mobility technology partnership with an aim to jointly launch an autonomous delivery robot service.

“We expect our partnership with LG to take Korea’s robotics industry to the next level,” said Song Jae-ho, vice president at KT’s AI/DX convergence business division.

Who Will Bend the Knee in RaaS Game of Thrones in 2022?

For several years, ransomware attacks have dominated the headlines as arguably the most impactful cyber threats. The Ransomware-as-a-Service (RaaS) model at the time opened the cybercrime career path to lesser skilled criminals which eventually led to more breaches and higher criminal profits.To get more news about RaaS, you can visit glprobotics.com official website.

For a long time, RaaS admins and developers were prioritized as the top targets, often neglecting the affiliates since they were perceived as less skilled. This, combined with the lack of disruptions in the RaaS ecosystem, created an atmosphere where those lesser-skilled affiliates could thrive and grow into very competent cybercriminals, eventually with a mind of their own.

In a response to the Colonial Pipeline attack, the popular cybercrime forums have banned ransomware actors from advertising. Now, the RaaS groups no longer have a third-party platform on which to actively recruit, show their seniority, offer escrow, have their binaries tested by moderators, or settle disputes. The lack of visibility has made it harder for RaaS groups to establish or maintain credibility and will make it harder for RaaS developers to maintain their current top tier position in the underground.

These events have undermined their trusted position. Ransomware has generated billions of dollars in recent years and it’s only a matter of time before more individuals who believe they aren’t getting their fair share become unhappy.

The first signs of this happening are already visible as described in our blog on the Groove Gang, a cyber-criminal gang that branched off from classic RaaS to specialize in computer network exploitation (CNE), exfiltrate sensitive data and, if lucrative, partner with a ransomware team to encrypt the organization’s network. McAfee Enterprise ATR believes, with high confidence, that the Groove gang is associated with the Babuk gang, either as a former affiliate or subgroup. These cybercriminals are happy to put aside previous Ransomware-as-a-Service hierarchies to focus on the ill-gotten gains to be made from controlling victim’s networks, rather than the previous approach which prioritized control of the ransomware itself.

Trust in a few things remains important even among cybercriminals underground, such as keeping your word and paying people what they deserve. Cybercriminals aren’t immune from feeling like employees whose contributions aren’t being adequately rewarded. When this happens, these bad actors cause problems within the organization. Ransomware has been generating billions of dollars in recent years and with revenue like that, it was inevitable that some individuals who believe they aren’t getting their fair share become unhappy and let the cybercrime world know it.

Recently, a former Conti affiliate was unhappy with their financial portion and decided to disclose the complete Conti attack playbook and their Cobalt Strike infrastructure online. In the past, McAfee ATR has been approached by individuals affiliated with certain RaaS groups expressing grudges with other RaaS members and admins, claiming they haven’t been paid in time or that their share wasn’t proportionate to the amount of work they put in.

In 2022, expect more self-reliant cybercrime groups to rise and shift the balance of power within the RaaS eco-climate from those who control the ransomware to those who control the victim’s networks.

X-as-a-Service business models are now commonplace in the industry, involving the delivery of a specific service rather than a product to perform the service.To get more news about Robots as a Service, you can visit glprobotics.com official website.

The most significant change in models such as this is the replacement of a proportionally very large up-front product price with a billing structure that is based on the services performed as the product itself.

This is particularly relevant in robotics; customers of robotics-as-a-service (RaaS) business models can get the benefits of robotic process automation by leasing robotic devices and accessing a cloud-based subscription service rather than purchasing the equipment outright.

The headaches of ownership, such as paying off an expensive piece of equipment plus handling maintenance issues that spring up, are avoided with RaaS.RaaS is becoming an increasingly popular option, especially for mobile robotics in logistics. In the research for IDTechEx’s newest report, Mobile Robotics in Logistics, Warehousing and Delivery 2022-2042, IDTechEx discovers 6-8 percent of the current market revenue for mobile robotics in logistics comes from RaaS model, according to the information and sources IDTechEx learned from industrial interviews.

IDTechEx was also informed by some companies that they expected RaaS sales to grow in the future, as they had received increased requests for RaaS.

IDTechEx reveals that intralogistics material transporting robots, like AGVs and AMRs, dominate the biggest share of the logistic mobile robotics market. There are three biggest advantages of choosing RaaS for adopting mobile robots in warehouses.
Even though the upfront cost of implementing mobile robots is usually much less than that of installing complex fixed automation systems, some small and medium-sized enterprises may not be able to afford to complete the system initialization of mobile robotics at once.

For instance, to fully automate the “goods-to-person” process in a 5,000 sq m warehouse, 200 grid-based automated guided carts (AGCs) could be needed, and the installation cost can be $4-4.5 million if software and customized shelves are also counted in.

However, like all X-as-a-Service models, the billing of RaaS can be based on a monthly subscription or a pay-as-you-go model. In this case, customers can utilize the service without investing too much at the beginning and will have fewer losses if they stop operating the mobile robotic system.In many industries, agile and lean operations are always desired; companies should be able to change operations or productions rapidly in response to market changes.

RaaS allows customers to start or end mobile robotic systems at any time point as needed, and also allows changing product types quickly, for example, transferring from “shelve-to-person” grid-based AGCs to “carton-to-person” case picking robots easily.As described in the report Mobile Robotics in Logistics, Warehousing and Delivery 2022-2042, scalability is one of the most important strengths compared to fixed automation.

However, RaaS enables scaling the fleet size to be even more convenient and easier, without concerning about the risks of reducing the fleet size in the future.For example, at sales peaks (for example, Black Friday and other shopping festivals) temporary workers are often needed in warehouses to fulfill the surged demand.

However, due to the global labor shortage, recruitment for temporary positions has become very challenging. RaaS of mobile robots can address this issue cost-effectively by expanding the service size to increase capacity and productivity for only a short period of time.

In the meanwhile, RaaS may bring benefits to mobile robotics companies as well. RaaS help increase customer stickiness by continuously providing service to customers, potentially creating more values and opportunities in the long term. It also helps maintain a good relationship with customers, making marketing and promotion easier for new products.