As interest in quadruped robots has recently increased, LIG Defense & Aerospace (LIG D&A)’s acquisition of “Ghost Robotics” is drawing attention as a successful case of strategic investment. This article examines the background and process of LIG D&A’s acquisition of Ghost Robotics and its future outlook.

Having completed the acquisition of Ghost Robotics, a global specialist in quadruped robots, LIG D&A is accelerating its efforts to secure global leadership in the next-generation unmanned platform solutions sector.

The unmanned platform field requires composite capabilities that must be accumulated over a long period, including mechanical design and drive control, autonomous driving, artificial intelligence, mission equipment integration, mass production, and operational data. LIG D&A therefore determined that, rather than building all capabilities from scratch through in-house development, the strategic acquisition and merger of a specialized company with proven technology and operational records in the global market would be the most effective and rapid way to establish a business foundation. After reviewing numerous domestic and overseas unmanned systems and robotics companies, LIG D&A began a full-scale review of acquiring Ghost Robotics in May 2023. Following 1 year and 2 months of thorough due diligence and procedures, it finalized the acquisition of a 60% stake in Ghost Robotics in July 2024.

Ghost Robotics’ flagship product, “Vision 60,” is a quadruped unmanned platform featuring a modular structure that can accommodate various mission payloads and high mobility on unstructured terrain. It can operate in environments that are difficult for wheeled or tracked vehicles to access, such as stairs, mountains, gravel fields, and building interiors, giving it strong potential for use in military, security, disaster response, and facility inspection applications.

LIG D&A plans to sequentially integrate EO/IR cameras and other surveillance and reconnaissance sensors, electronic warfare equipment, a manipulator arm capable of gripping and handling various objects, and terrain recognition and autonomous driving solutions onto Vision 60. In particular, the lightweight, modular manipulator arm mounted on the upper part of Vision 60 is expected to significantly expand the application range of conventional quadruped robots by enabling door opening, equipment transport, object retrieval, and handling of hazardous materials. Through this, the company aims to evolve Vision 60 from a simple remotely controlled mobility platform into a multipurpose unmanned system that autonomously perceives and traverses its surroundings while performing diverse missions, including reconnaissance and surveillance, communications relay, hazardous material detection, facility inspection, explosive ordnance disposal, and disaster site support.

LIG D&A is also pursuing the development of a next-generation quadruped unmanned platform. The next-generation model targets a reduction of approximately 40% in total weight compared with existing products, while increasing payload capacity to about 130% and endurance to about 160% of current levels.

The company plans to comprehensively improve mechanical design, drive components, power management, batteries, and control software so that, even as the platform is made lighter, it can carry more mission equipment and operate for longer periods, thereby enhancing both mobility efficiency and mission effectiveness. In addition, based on an open, modular interface, LIG D&A intends to expand the payload ecosystem so that sensors, communications equipment, robotic arms, and mission software from specialized domestic and international companies can be mounted on Vision 60.

As the quadruped robot market is expected to expand from platform sales to a focus on mission equipment and software, training, maintenance, and performance upgrade services, LIG D&A plans to build related supply chains and an MRO (maintenance, repair, and overhaul) ecosystem in cooperation with partner companies at home and abroad. An LIG D&A official stated, “The competitiveness of future unmanned systems will be determined by what sensors and mission equipment they carry and how autonomously they perform their missions,” adding, “By combining LIG’s nearly half-century of accumulated capabilities in sensors, electronic warfare, autonomous navigation, and system integration with Ghost Robotics’ quadruped platforms, we will develop Vision 60 into the kind of multipurpose unmanned platform demanded by the global market.” The official continued, “By successfully integrating LIG D&A’s advanced technologies with Ghost Robotics, we will lead a manned-unmanned teaming paradigm in K-defense and achieve tangible results in our leap toward the next 100 years.”

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