Bear Robotics

History

2024

Suicide at South Korean City Hall

At the end of June 2024, it became known that the robot, which served as a civil servant in the Kumi City Council in South Korea, committed "suicide." This is the first such incident in history.

The machine was developed by California-based startup Bear Robotics. The robot worked from 9 am to 18 pm and had its own certificate of a public service officer. He helped in the delivery of documents, and also provided various information to citizens. A unique feature was the ability to independently call the elevator and move between floors during official duties.

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InterestingEngineering

Eyewitnesses of the incident say that before the "suicide" the robot for some reason "circled in one place, as if there was something there." After that, he threw himself off a two-meter staircase and crashed. Fragments of the machine were collected to analyze and establish the causes of what happened. Meanwhile, this case provoked a wave of discussions on social networks and the media.

Some commentators have opined that the robot may have experienced an emotional breakdown due to workload stress. Others believe the "suicide" was due to a software glitch. And local media are full of headlines like "Why did a diligent official do this?" Or "Was working in the authorities too hard for a robot?"

As of early July 2024, the exact circumstances leading to the death of the robot are being investigated. The incident raises questions about the consequences of integrating robots into people's daily lives. South Korea is the world leader in introducing robotics and boasts the highest density of robots in the world. The country has implemented automation in sectors ranging from manufacturing to public service.^[1]

LG bought a stake in Bear Flag Robotics

On March 12, 2024, the company LG announced the acquisition startup of a stake in Bear Robotics from, Silicon Valley which specializes in the creation of autonomous robot waiters with. artificial intelligence These machines are designed to reduce the burden on service personnel in cafes, bars, restaurants and other establishments.

LG acquired a stake in Bear Robotics in exchange for a $60 million investment. It is said that these are strategic investments aimed at ensuring long-term growth. Upon completion of the transaction, LG will own the largest portion of Bear Robotics shares on a sole basis.

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Bear Robotics

In the service robotics market, we focus primarily on areas such as delivery and logistics. However, we are also carefully exploring other areas, leaving open opportunities for equity investments or mergers and acquisitions of promising companies, says LG CEO William Cho.

Startup Bear Robotics was founded in 2017. Its CEO is John Ha, a former senior software engineer and tech executive at Google. The company is conducting research in the development of specialized software for service robotics, fleet management technologies and related cloud solutions.

It is noted that LG is striving to switch to software-defined robotics (SDR). The company intends to design service robots on an open architecture software platform that can serve various market segments. At the same time, it is planned to actively use AI tools. Globally, the service robotics market is expected to grow from $36.2 billion in 2021 to $103.3 billion by 2026.^[2]

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