Kakao Mobility said on May 19 it signed a strategic agreement with HD Hyundai Site Solutions to build a physical AI logistics ecosystem. The companies will combine Kakao Mobility’s capabilities in integrated control and transport management for different types of mobile devices with HD Hyundai Site Solutions’ unmanned autonomous industrial vehicles and logistics-site control solutions. They will build an integrated system that connects equipment, platforms and data into a single framework.

The companies will jointly push platform integration and proof-of-concept trials at logistics sites. Based on data generated through the trials, they plan to identify new business models and explore global business opportunities. They aim to broaden the base of the physical AI ecosystem in response to an industrial shift toward unmanned operations, moving from hardware-focused manufacturing to software-based operations.

Kakao Mobility will use its experience operating mobile devices in areas such as robot deliveries and robot valet parking, along with its transportation management system, to connect various industrial vehicles at logistics sites to its platform. It will focus on creating an environment that optimises operations across the full process, from orders to middle-mile transport and work inside warehouses. The goal is to resolve structural limits such as operational inefficiencies and work delays that arose from data disconnections between processes in existing logistics environments.

Starting with unmanned forklifts, the companies plan to establish a next-generation logistics platform ecosystem standard that integrates management of various heterogeneous unmanned mobile devices, including automated guided vehicles and autonomous mobile robots, on a single platform.

Song Hee-jun (송희준), CEO of HD Hyundai Site Solutions, said the combination of his company’s capabilities in unmanned autonomous industrial vehicles and logistics-site solutions with Kakao Mobility’s platform and service capabilities has created a foothold to lead logistics automation and the physical AI ecosystem. He said the cooperation would accelerate automation at logistics sites and provide customers with differentiated solutions.

Ryu Geung-sun (류긍선), CEO of Kakao Mobility, said the company will combine its software capabilities with HD Hyundai Site Solutions’ industrial vehicle and logistics solution capabilities to advance its logistics AX model and continue expanding the scope of physical AI technology applications.