BUSAN < invest Korea

According to Yonhap News,

[Busan = Yonhap News] Reporter Cho Jung-ho — Korea Maritime & Ocean University (KMOU) is stepping up to upgrade its offshore testing system for the real-world verification of unmanned marine mobility vehicles in partnership with domestic marine specialized companies.

KMOU announced on the 27th that it signed a Memorandum of Understanding for marine mobility demonstration research and technical cooperation, hosted by the Marine Unmanned Technology Education Center at the university headquarters on the 26th.

Three specialized companies participated in this agreement to strengthen the industry-academia ecosystem:
- Oriental Precision & Engineering: A specialist in offshore cranes.
- Korea Marine Industry: A specialist in offshore structure installation.
- EIR&C: A specialist in civil safety and precision measurement.

Under the agreement, the participating organizations agreed to jointly establish a sea-based testing infrastructure capable of launching, recovering, and operating unmanned marine vehicles. They also committed to operating a joint support system for demonstration research in actual sea conditions.

Recently, the utilization of unmanned vehicles has been expanding in various fields, such as marine surveys and offshore wind farm maintenance. However, the lack of infrastructure allowing for repeated testing in actual marine environments has been pointed out as a hurdle to the commercialization of these technologies.

To address this, KMOU plans to create a test environment based on unmanned systems in the waters near its campus, laying the foundation for stable equipment installation and maritime operation tests.

Based on this industry-academia cooperation, the university also plans to expand joint research in the marine mobility sector and develop practice-oriented educational programs.

Ryu Dong-geun, President of KMOU, stated, "Technologies for unmanned marine vehicles and marine mobility are the core competitiveness of the future marine industry." He added, "This agreement will serve as an important starting point to elevate the competitiveness of Busan's new marine industries to the next level by securing a foundation for real-sea verification."

ccho@yna.co.kr



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Source Text

Source: Yonhap News (January 27, 2026)

** This article was translated from Korean.