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LG CNS brings global robotics
experts together to advance physical AI
By Lee Kyung-min, The Korea Times - LG
CNS brought together more than 100 researchers and industry professionals to
explore how physical artificial intelligence (AI) can move beyond laboratories
and into factories, warehouses and other industrial settings.
The company recently hosted its 2026
Robotics & Physical AI Forum at its Future Robotics Lab headquarters in
Magok, Seoul, with participants including faculty members, graduate students
and company employees from the University of Toronto, Sogang University,
Chung-Ang University and Korea University.
Discussions focused on advances in robot
foundation models, data, intelligent robotic hardware and simulation, as well
as technical challenges involved in deploying physical AI in real-world
operations.
Drawing on more than two decades of
experience and over 1,000 smart factory and smart logistics projects, LG CNS
presented its approach to bringing robotics technologies into industrial
environments.
The company also introduced two
platforms launched this year: PhysicalWorks Forge, a robot-learning platform,
and PhysicalWorks Baton, an agentic AI-based platform for robot operations and
management.
Professor Lee Chi-geun of the University
of Toronto presented research on the development of robot foundation models and
technologies needed to deploy them in physical robots.
He discussed methods for combining data
from different types of robots, along with flow matching and action chunking,
techniques designed to help robots generate smoother, more continuous
movements.
Differences in robot movement, latency
and data availability remain among the challenges facing the technology,
according to the presentation.
Participants also exchanged views on
applications in manufacturing and logistics, operational challenges, the
capabilities companies and universities need to develop, and how human roles
may evolve as robotics advances.
"We hope to strengthen our
technological competitiveness through continued engagement with academia and
build our business capabilities so research results can lead to innovation in
actual industrial settings," said Lee Jun-ho, executive vice president and
head of LG CNS' Smart Logistics & City Business Division.
