Lotte Global Logistics has signed a business agreement with Seoul-based FRT Robotics to jointly develop and commercialise AI-powered wearable exoskeletons for the warehouse floor — a partnership designed to reduce musculoskeletal strain on Korean logistics workers and lift throughput at the same time.
An AX Sprint Team-Up
Both companies were tapped in March as project execution organisations under South Korea's AI Application Product Rapid Commercialization Support Project, better known as AX Sprint — a joint effort of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and 10 other ministries. Signed on July 30, 2026, the agreement formalises the collaboration into a co-development track that spans data collection, algorithm tuning and on-site demonstration.
Real-World Data, Real-World Sites
Under the deal, Lotte will roll out FRT's wearable robots across its parcel and 3PL sites to log worker motion and task data. That data will feed back into the training loop for the suits' AI control algorithms so precision improves in the exact lifting, packing and sorting patterns Korean fulfilment centres actually use. The two companies will also build an industry-academia-research consortium around the effort.
Physical AI, Korean Style
"Improving working conditions at logistics sites and ensuring worker safety are very important tasks," said Yook Chang-yong, head of Lotte Global Logistics' technology division. "We will actively cooperate so that physical AI-based wearable robot technology can become a new innovation model for the logistics industry."
The move slots into a busy stretch for physical-AI deployments across Asia, including Hypershell's Series X exoskeleton launch in Europe, XYZ Robotics' Bauhaus depalletising rollout and Simbe's chainwide HomeBase deployment.
Reporting based on coverage from Seoul Economic Daily and the Korea Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.