Mobilint, an artificial intelligence chip company, said on the 22nd that it is developing an on-device AI computing platform that runs the various AI models needed by humanoid robots inside the robot itself and links them directly to physical control.
Mobilint turned to humanoid robots because a single AI model is not enough for a machine to judge situations and act on its own in spaces shared with people. Beyond vision-language models (VLM), which interpret visual information and language together to assess situations and tasks, and vision-language-action models (VLA), which translate those judgments into robot movement, a range of other AI functions must run together inside one robot, including object recognition, navigation, safety assessment, and processing of voice and various sensor inputs.
The company aims to build a computing environment that reliably handles the required calculations even when different AI models operate simultaneously, and that allows an AI judgment to feed quickly into actual robot movement. To that end, it plans to optimize its neural processing unit (NPU) and software together so that computing resources are used efficiently when multiple AI models run at once and critical tasks are handled at the moment they are needed.
Mobilint is also developing a high-performance, low-power NPU and a compact accelerator module to manage power consumption and heat inside humanoid robots. It plans to build a software environment alongside the hardware so that AI models run efficiently within the robot. The company says this will reduce the burden on robot makers of separately connecting and optimizing chips, AI models, hardware and software when they add new AI features to their products.
The AI computing platform will later be validated in stages in connection with LG Electronics' (066570) operating scenarios and system environment for humanoids designed for everyday spaces. The project is part of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy's K-On-Device AI Semiconductor Technology Development Program. The Korea Evaluation Institute of Industrial Technology (KEIT) serves as the managing agency, and Mobilint is the lead research and development institution for the subproject on developing on-device AI accelerators for humanoids. Mobilint plans to extend the technology secured through the project to a range of physical AI areas, including service robots, autonomous mobile robots (AMR), smart home appliances and AI cameras.
"In physical AI, what matters is not only the computing performance of an AI model but whether the AI runs reliably inside an actual product and whether its judgments can feed quickly into the movement of the machine," said Park Joo-hyun, head of Mobilint's research planning division. "We will verify real-world applicability in connection with LG Electronics' humanoid environment and build a foundation for expanding into a variety of physical AI products."