DAEGU — The Future Innovation Technology Expo (FIX) opens on the 21st at EXCO in Daegu, where leading companies in the city's mainstay auto parts industry will roll out new technologies including humanoid robots and urban air mobility (UAM) aircraft.
With boundaries between industries breaking down and technology convergence accelerating, these companies, which are expanding into future industries, will showcase their innovations to domestic and overseas buyers as part of an active push into new markets.
FIX runs for four days through the 24th as Daegu's flagship exhibition for future industries, covering mobility, robotics, information and communications technology (ICT) and startups, the Daegu city government and participating companies said on the 20th.
Now in its third year, the expo has drawn a record 588 companies that will present the latest technologies and innovation cases in emerging industries.
The share of overseas exhibitors rose to 28% this year from 17% a year earlier, raising the event's international standing.
This year's theme is "AI: Beyond Technology, Into Everyday Life," with a focus on innovations already in use at industrial sites and in daily life, or set for commercialization in the near future.
Organizers have sharply expanded hands-on content that lets visitors experience advanced technology directly and see how it will change daily life.
Attention is focused in particular on the new technologies that Daegu's leading companies will put on display.
Auto parts makers SL Corporation (005850), Sambo Motors and PHC will respectively demonstrate robot-based smart factory production processes, a scaled-down model of a UAM airframe (B-33X) and robot actuators.
SL will present the "Sseulmo Robot," a mobile dual-arm AI robot for manufacturing that is currently undergoing field testing at its Seongseo plant.
The mobile robot combines the company's in-house autonomous mobile robot (AMR) with "Maxion," an upper-body dual-arm robot made by robotics firm Neuromeka, and SL plans to deploy it on its own production lines.
A tier-one supplier to Hyundai Motor (005380), SL is rapidly expanding into robot components in step with Hyundai's growing robotics business.
The company has also drawn industry attention by taking on contract manufacturing of MobED, the mobile robot platform unveiled by Hyundai Motor.
Beyond sourcing robots for its own production lines, SL aims over the long term to become a robot supplier as it prepares for dark factories.
Sambo Motors is accelerating development of future air mobility airframes, drawing on the precision manufacturing, lightweighting, electronic control and systems integration technologies it has built up in auto parts.
At this year's FIX, it will unveil a new vehicle for next-generation air transport that applies core technologies including lightweight structures and propulsion and reduction gear systems.
The company will also present air mobility solutions built on a multipurpose modular platform that can handle missions ranging from passenger and cargo transport to reconnaissance and surveillance.
Alongside the region's leading companies, global mobility players will present content on the future direction of transport, including autonomous driving. They include Hyundai Motor and GMTCK, as well as Mercedes-Benz, Zeekr, Neolix and Volocopter, which are taking part for the first time this year.
In robotics, Daegu-headquartered HD Hyundai Robotics will unveil its next-generation collaborative robot, the HDC35-18, along with a new dual-arm robot.
Physical AI robot companies will also turn out in force, including Doosan Robotics, a CES Best of Innovation award winner, and Dogu Robotics, a leader in South Korea's patrol robot market, showing robot technologies that raise productivity at industrial sites and solve everyday inconveniences.
On the ICT side, Megazone Cloud, Asia's largest cloud management specialist, and OnePredict, which holds South Korea's first commercialized industrial AI solution, will set up booths.
Nineteen leading Chinese AI companies and 30 leading AI companies from ASEAN countries will also visit Daegu for the first time to exhibit their latest ICT and AI technologies.
A conference held alongside the exhibition is also drawing attention.
The three-day conference, which begins on the 21st, brings together 61 experts from 14 countries to cover technology trends and key issues across emerging industries.
Keynote speakers include Cho Kyu-jin, a world-renowned robotics scholar and professor at Seoul National University, and Brian McMurray, head of global automaker GMTCK.
A special lecture is also planned by "Gwedo," a science YouTuber and adjunct professor at DGIST.
FIX is also expected to serve as an active venue for business.
Export consultation sessions, held for a single day last year, will be expanded to two days this year, on the 22nd and 23rd.
About 100 companies from some 30 countries, including buyers invited through KOTRA and private agencies, will be matched in advance with exhibitors to create an active business platform.
"Companies will generate tangible export and investment results through technology cooperation and business exchange, and citizens will have a chance to see how AI and advanced technology are seeping deeply into industrial sites and everyday life," Daegu Mayor Choo Kyung-ho said.