▲Picture shows when company participated in exhibition.

Founded in 1998, LIG Nex1(www.lignex1.com) is a comprehensive defense company that specializes in the production of weapons systems in the field of precision guided weapons, surveillance patrol, and command and control communications. Guided missiles and multi-function lasers are their main products.

Based on know-how accumulated in the feld of defense and ICT technology capabilities, LIG Nex1 are leading the 4th industrial revolution. As a company, LIG Nex1 is deeply committed to R&D. Of 3,200 employees, over half are devoted to research, giving LIG Nex1 the highest level of research manpower of a single company, both in terms of number and quality. With the R&D experience gained in the fields of precision guided weapons, surveillance patrol, communications equipment, and convergence of key technologies, they are leaders in future fields such as robots, unmanned systems, and cyber warfare.

▲Bird Expellant System

LIG Nex1 is also active in robot research. They have developed ground robots such as the Bird Expellant System (LBES); unmanned marine surface/air robots for coastal surveillance reconnaissance; unmanned underwater robots and submersibles for exploration. They have also developed a cutting edge wearable recovery suit and disaster response work robots.

▲Muscle reinforcement robots

LIG Nex1 has recently turned its attention to core technology for the future infantry system – muscle reinforcement robots – a key area in which major countries around the world have been racing to develop. In order to dominate the wearable robots market, the company has been conducting R&D since 2010, and has secured key technologies such as the hydraulic power pack, sensor processing board and control algorithms. The company developed a differentiated wearable robot for soldiers called LEXO(Lower Extremity eXOskeleton for Soldiers), and with this product showed that they are a step ahead. The company is working now to refine their technology and improve its usability. These kinds of wearable robot technologies are expected to have a profound affect not only in the military field but in the Fire-fighting, Rehabilitation, Silver, Agricultural, and Industrial fields. It is expected that wearable robot technology will have a ripple effect not only in the military field but also in the whole of society such as fire fighting, rehabilitation, medical, silver, agriculture, and industry.

LIG Nex1 is collaborating with the Agency for Defense Development to develop technology for “Comprehensive Mission-Use Wearable Robot Muscle Reinforcing Robot” which is to be used jointly with the US Armed Forces. The Defense Acquisition Program Administration will invest 20 billion won over a course of 4 years, from 2016 to 2020. This project will be carried out as an inter-agency cooperation for technology development between the Defense Acquisition Program Administration and Ministry of the Interior and Safety. Each agency will contribute to the budget; the Defense Acquisition Program Administration will be charged with 3 projects (20 billion won); the Ministry of the Interior and Safety will be charged with 1 project (2.7 billion won); they will be developed by bringing together the full Defense and civilian technological capabilities. With a focus on handling heavy loads, LIG Nex1 will be managing “the upper · lower limb muscle reinforcing robot’s integrated operations control technology for high loads” and “Wearable muscle reinforcing robot high density control technology” projects.

In April, at the open-type future technology competition, “2nd Future Growth Challenge Demo Day” sponsored by the Ministry of Science and ICT, they collaborated with FRT, IDIS, and Korea Institute of Industrial Technology to make a “Fireonman” Team, and after its demonstration, received the grand Prize, the Prime Minister’s Award, and prize money of 1 billion won.

▲Future Firefighter

The team was able to win the Grand Prize by incorporating the real-time information integrated smart firefighter helmet element technology and augmented reality technology to existing wearable robot technology. They demonstrated the technology by wearing the muscle strengthening robot and doing repeated squats while holding 30kg of weight. This wearable robot technology is an example of a convergence technology product and was developed based on a “Future Firefighter” scenerio.

In diaster site such as a fire or industrial accident, when a firefighter is wearing the IoT communication-enabled head-mounted display (HMD) helmet, the conditions of the scene are transmitted in real time to the control center through the sensor convergence-type helmet. In addition, VR and AR technology can be activated to “see through” the smoke in a disaster site, as the firefighter's visibility is greatly reduced due to the smoke. The virtual reality and augmented reality technologies are able to reproduce the scenes of the disaster area. Through the augmented reality and virtual reality environments, when there is a need to transfer or remove dangerous or heavy objects, the firefighter is able to receive help from the muscle reinforcing wearable robot.

It is noteworthy that LIG Nex1 is increasing their R&D investment in marine “drones” as it is expected to be a future new growth business. The company co-developed/produced the cutting edge torpedoes (the Red Shark, Blue Shark, and White Shark) that the Korean military is employing. LIG Nex1 holds advanced technological skills in the field of underwater/water surface drones and is moving the company forward in a variety of ways. LIG Nex1 under the supervision of the Defense Acquisition Program Administration developed an unmanned surface vehicle as part the civilian/military defense robot pilot project. Demonstrations were conducted early this spring.

▲Unmanned surface vehicle

Once the company was selected in December 2015 for the unmanned surface vehicle development project, the supervising agency (LIG Nex1) also began to converge cutting edge technology such as autonomous operation control, communications module and operations equipment (electronic optics · radar, etc.), electronics · IT · Artificial Intelligence and ship hull form platform. In particular, at the demonstration, the product revealed functions that can be applied to marine obstacle avoidance, illegal fishing boats, specific object tracking, and danger area surveillance. On the basis of the demonstration, the Defense Acquisition Program Administration plans to instill a military operations style concept and operational demand performance requirements when entering dangerous waters such as NLL, surveillance reconnaissance of operations bases and maritime disaster areas.

According to a company associate, "LIG Nex1, which has led the defense industry in the Republic of Korea, has built up a foundation to expand into overseas markets by increasing our global presence and reputation for reliability based on our accumulated knowledge of military technology. We will be expanding our business scope to include aerospace robots and lasers to become a comprehensive defense company."