Domestic AgTech company Iocrops has been recognized as a key player in shaping the future of agricultural automation with its physical AI-based harvesting robot technology.

Iocrops recently won three awards, including the Presidential Award, at the '2025 Agricultural and Food Startup Contest,' opening new horizons in agricultural automation.

In this contest hosted by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs and the Korea Institute of Agricultural Science and Technology, Iocrops was recognized for its technological advancement, business scalability, and overseas expansion performance.

Physical AI is a field that combines robotics and cognitive science, enabling AI to perceive and act in physical environments.

Since NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang emphasized at CES 2025 that “the next frontier after AI is physical AI,” it has been attracting attention worldwide.

Physical AI is emerging as a key technology for automation and efficiency enhancement, especially in the agricultural sector, where labor shortages are severe.

In 2023, Iocrops commercialized the AI greenhouse autonomous driving robot 'HERMAI', realizing automated growth monitoring.

Then, in 2026, the physical AI-based harvesting robot will be launched.We are on the verge of commercialization. We currently operate a 21,000-pyeong smart farm nationwide, partnering with approximately 400 farms, and are also distributing our technology to the Smart Farm Innovation Valley and local government control centers.

Key technologies include: AI-based autonomous greenhouse robots; data-based human resource management solutions; sensors and remote monitoring systems; and a 2026 low-cost semi-automatic sprayer (available for pre-order).

Just four months after entering the North American market, Iocrops has introduced its solutions to two large greenhouses, gaining recognition for its technological prowess overseas.

The company expects 2.5x year-over-year revenue growth in its smart farm solutions division, and is also preparing Series B funding to build fully automated, unmanned farms and expand globally.

CEO Jo Jin-hyung said, “Existing robots required humans to manually input all situations, but physical AI and imitation learning can flexibly respond even to unpredictable field situations,” and added, “We plan to apply harvesting robots to our own farms starting in the first quarter of next year.”