[Edaily Reporter Kwon Oh Seok ] #CLOBOT Co., Ltd., a company specializing in robotics solutions, will participate as a joint R&D partner in a project to develop a “GPR-based AI-powered mobile robot system for inspecting underground structures.”

CLOBOT Co., Ltd announced on the 1st that this project is being carried out as part of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy’s Support Program for the Rapid Commercialization of AI-Applied Products. The project will run for approximately 20 months, from May 2026 to December 2027, with a total budget of 6.2 billion won. Of this amount, 4.38 billion won will come from government grants, and 1.88 billion won will be contributed by the institution.
With recent expansion of investment in key industrial infrastructure—such as AI data centers, semiconductor clusters, and power grids—the importance of stable maintenance and management of such infrastructure is growing. Consequently, there is an increasing demand for advanced safety inspection technologies for urban infrastructure, including power, telecommunications, water and sewage systems, and roads.
Traditionally, inspections of underground structures have primarily relied on specialized personnel operating equipment directly or conducting selective surveys of specific sections. As a result, limitations have been pointed out, including variations in inspection quality depending on site conditions, as well as the time and labor burdens associated with repeated inspections and surveys of high-risk areas.
This project aims to accelerate the commercialization of an intelligent diagnostic system that combines data from multi-sensor arrays—including ground-penetrating radar (GPR), acoustic sensors, and soil moisture sensors—with autonomous robots to non-destructively detect signs of abnormalities in urban underground structures. In particular, the core objective is for AI to automatically analyze risks such as leaks, voids, and sinkholes that may occur in aging water and sewer pipes, beneath roads, and in underground utilities, and to enhance on-site applicability by linking this analysis to a 3D Geographic Information System (GIS)-based monitoring platform.
Participants in this project include Geonhwa, the lead R&D institution, as well as CLOBOT Co., Ltd., Atenmind, and the Seoul National University Industry-Academic Cooperation Foundation. Geonhwa will oversee field demonstrations and the establishment of a test bed, while CLOBOT Co., Ltd. will be responsible for developing the autonomous robot platform and the GPR cart towing system. Atenmind will handle the synchronization of multi-sensor data and the construction of a 3D GIS-based monitoring platform, and the Seoul National University Industry-Academic Cooperation Foundation will be responsible for developing and refining AI detection models based on GPR and acoustic fusion data.
CLOBOT Co., Ltd plans to develop a driving platform capable of stably towing the GPR cart based on its existing four-wheeled robot base, and to advance control technology that enables stable operation even on irregular urban road surfaces and in GPS-shadowed environments. Additionally, the company intends to contribute to the implementation of an underground structure inspection robot system capable of field validation by integrating various sensors and communication modules.