In recent years, US universities have aggressively established robot research institutes (RIs) to meet industry talent demand and advance innovation.
For instance, the University of Michigan, supported by Ford, opened its $75 million robotics centre in 2021 to promote industry-academic collaboration on market-ready robots. Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), which launched the first US Department of Robotics in 1979, now hosts the world’s leading RI.
Cities such as Boston, Pittsburgh, and Silicon Valley are competing to become the world’s “Robot Capital,” leveraging top universities to create a virtuous cycle of research, education, start-ups, and investment.
Harvard and MIT in Boston, CMU in Pittsburgh, and Stanford and UC Berkeley in Silicon Valley exemplify this ecosystem. In Korea, Seoul National University is preparing to open the Seoul National University Robotics Research Institute (SNURI), aiming to become a world-class physical AI hub under the leadership of Professor Cho Kyu-jin.
Unlike IT, robotics requires hardware-intensive collaboration. Effective RIs allow teams with diverse skills to experiment, integrate hardware, and solve real-world problems.
This academic movement accelerates the launch of robot start-ups and their commercialisation, creating multiple hardware platforms beyond humanoids. University-industry collaboration ensures research can address practical challenges and reach global markets.
Recent growth in Korean robot start-ups signals the early formation of a robust ecosystem with the potential to produce global leaders similar to DJI or Boston Dynamics.
