SK AX is pushing to innovate manufacturing site operating systems around robots and build autonomous fabs in which the entire factory judges and moves on its own.

SK AX (CEO Kim Wan-jong) announced on the 9th that it will fully launch its “Manufacturing RX (Robot Transformation) Full Stack Service,” which helps manufacturing companies achieve operational innovation through the adoption of robots.

SK AX’s “Manufacturing RX Full Stack Service” provides one-stop support across all stages, from virtual verification before robot deployment, to autonomous on-site control, and integrated operation of the entire plant.

First, it implements the following in a virtual space: ▲ actual plant blueprints ▲ equipment layout ▲ worker movements ▲ material flow ▲ real-time quality changes according to process conditions. Based on this, it repeatedly verifies thousands of driving and work scenarios before deploying robots on site. This approach simulates quality control variables, bottlenecks, collision risks, and charging scheduling. Through simulation, it can optimize real-time robot control and even establish detour routes for unexpected events and charging plans according to battery consumption rates.

Once robots that have completed virtual verification are deployed on site, physical AI based on a “VLA model” that sees (Vision), understands (Language), and acts (Action) is applied. VLA-based robots can independently recognize and assess unexpected obstacles or changes in the work environment, actively adjust their operating methods, and thereby maximize precision and continuity of work even in unstructured manufacturing environments.

The final stage is integrated operation, the core of future factories. In future plants, various robots with different manufacturers and operating systems (heterogeneous robots), such as autonomous mobile robots (AMR), collaborative robots, and humanoids, must operate in an organic manner. Through its “Heterogeneous Robot Integrated Control System,” SK AX integrates robots from different manufacturers into a single operating system and links them with related systems such as Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES) to enable integrated control of the entire production process.

SK AX plans to support the construction of autonomous factories through its full stack service, in order to address pressing issues in Korea’s manufacturing sector, such as labor shortages and declining productivity.

SK AX is already verifying systems and proof-of-concept models related to digital twins and integrated robot control, in parallel with accumulating on-site data in the semiconductor industry. The company is expanding these projects to the shipbuilding industry and plans to continue extending the service to a wide range of sectors based on proof-of-concept models that have been validated in high-difficulty manufacturing environments.

Kim Kwang-soo, Head of Manufacturing Services at SK AX, said, “Robot transition in manufacturing is no longer about simply purchasing hardware; the core is the operational capability to ensure that robots run stably on actual production lines and are connected across the entire plant,” adding, “Leveraging its capabilities in digital twins, physical AI, and heterogeneous robot integrated control, SK AX will be an AX partner that evolves customers’ plants into autonomous factories that never stop.”

Meanwhile, RX refers to the trend in which industries and society are shifting toward robots directly replacing or supplementing human physical labor and on-site tasks. If DX (Digital Transformation) is the phase of converting work into digital form and AX (AI Transformation) is the phase of enhancing judgment and perception capabilities with AI, RX is the next phase, a transformation in which robots move and perform work in physical space.

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