Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH) has become the first university in Korea to join the Universal Automation.Org (UAO), an organization dedicated to promoting open industrial automation.

Open industrial automation is an automation solution that builds software-centric automation applications by modeling and distributing software (SW) applications independently of the underlying hardware (HW) infrastructure. The relevant industry has established and is active in the Universal Automation Association, a non-profit independent industrial automation organization.

UAO is a non-profit organization established to share automation software components (Runtime Engine) across automation technologies regardless of the specific brand of the supplier, based on the IEC61499 standard.

In addition to global industrial specialists such as Schneider Electric, Yokogawa, Phoenix Contact, and Intel, end customers such as Hyundai Motor Company, Shell, ExxonMobil, and Cargill, and educational institutions and government agencies such as the Korea Technology Leadership Institute (KTL), Singapore Institute of Manufacturing Technology (SIMTech), Huazhong University in China, and Edith Cowan University in Australia have also signed up as members.

As of now, more than 100 member companies have participated, and 12 manufacturers, including Schneider Electric, have released products with the UAO Runtime Engine built-in. This provides industrial operators with a new level of engineering and maintenance efficiency through simple application portability and interoperability.

This membership was led by Professor Deok-Young Kim of the Department of Industrial and Management Engineering at Pohang University of Science and Technology.

Professor Kim is an expert in smart factory research and currently leads the Factory Intelligence Laboratory at Pohang University of Science and Technology.

The Factory Intelligence Lab at Pohang University of Science and Technology is conducting research on advanced manufacturing technologies such as automatic generation of control programs using artificial intelligence (AI), autonomous facility control agent technology, and system abnormality diagnosis and prediction algorithms, with the goal of innovating smart factories and industrial automation.

Through this membership, POSTECH will expand its research on the development of technologies required for sustainable and competitive smart factories of the future. In particular, through collaboration with global research institutes and industrial partners affiliated with UAO, it will share insights on open industrial automation, develop various technological solutions for open automation, and promote projects to apply them to actual industrial sites.

“I believe that the role of UAO is very important because open automation is essential for increasing the efficiency of industrial operations and maintaining competitiveness in a rapidly changing market environment,” said Professor Deok-Young Kim of the Department of Industrial and Management Engineering at POSTECH. “Through joining UAO, we will expand the smart factory research conducted in our lab to the global level and play an important role in helping Korea become a global leader in the field of industrial automation.”