Sheco Co., Ltd. (CEO Ki-seong Kwon) announced that it will participate in CES 2024, which will be held in Las Vegas, USA from Tuesday, January 9th to January 12th (Friday, local time) next year.
Sheco presents a solution to purify various pollutants occurring in seas and waters using drones. The self-developed water purification drone ‘Sheco Ark-M’ is a product that can automate the work of cleaning contaminants on the water surface, which used to be done manually by people on ships.
At industrial sites, various pollutants such as oil, wastewater, cargo dust, and green algae are generated in each environment, and facilities, heavy equipment, personnel, and processes are operated to treat the pollutants in separate ways. While this method incurs cost and time, Sheco Ark is an all-in-one configuration that is versatile for the environment and can respond to various contaminants, thereby improving the economic effectiveness of water purification work and managing water resources at the national level. Officials explain that it can also provide policy effects.
In addition, Sheco is moving forward with the goal of complete autonomy and data disclosure of the overall water quality management system, including drones for purifying surface contaminants, AI contaminant recognition cameras, and data collection. We continue to develop clean technology (Going Green with Robotics) so that home robot vacuum cleaners can be applied to marine environments.
A Sheco official said, “Currently, 256 oil spill marine pollution accidents occur in Korea a year, or once every two days. In addition to oil spills, various water pollution problems are occurring around the world, and each contaminant requires different experts, manpower, heavy equipment, and treatment methods,” he said. “Sheco recognized these problems and developed wired large-sized heavy equipment into a wireless, compact, unified system. “We have made it possible for even non-experts to easily respond immediately to the site of a pollution accident through training in less than 30 minutes.”
In addition, Sheco Ark’s purification service is said to be different from existing ones in terms of contaminant recovery and treatment methods. The existing method of adsorbing contaminants when they are with water required a cumbersome process of secondary separation due to the high moisture content, but Sheco Arc has developed ‘real-time contaminant separation’ technology to separate contaminants and water at the same time as they are sucked in. Stored in a cartridge, purified water is discharged immediately.
An official said, “Sheco Arc is a product that can automate water quality management in seas and waters, which used to involve ships and people. It is so intuitive that a non-expert can use it right away after about 30 minutes of training. “In addition to the automation solution for the product itself, the electromagnetic recovery system we developed in-house allows us to automate the entire work process without using human resources to retrieve and retrieve the product,” he explained.
In addition, “automation of the work process ensures the safety of workers by freeing them from respiratory, joint, and nervous system diseases caused by contact with contaminants arising from existing work. “There are no additional materials such as facilities, ships, or heavy equipment to recover pollutants, and no expertise is required, so it is easy to introduce even in situations where it is difficult to invest a lot in water quality management, such as small and medium-sized businesses and developing countries,” he emphasized.
At the time of prototype development in 2022, 1 Sheco was sold as a non-point pollution response robot at the Hyundai Motor Company plant, and after the product launch in 2023, 1 unit was sold to the Korea Coast Guard and 2 units to the Korea Ocean Environment Corporation through public procurement through selection of innovative prototypes, and the National Defense Excellence Award was awarded. Two units were contracted to the Navy unit through pilot use of the equipment. In addition, sales through domestic services achieved results such as removal of green algae at Rural Community Corporation, removal of senospheres at thermal power plants, and removal of paints at Samsung Heavy Industries. Sheco’s total cumulative investment is approximately KRW 1.3 billion, and it is participating in various government R&D projects worth approximately KRW 7.6 billion.
Regarding participation in this CES, an official said, “By winning the 2nd category of the CES 2024 Innovation Award (Drones & Unmanned Systems, Product in support of Human Security), we have confirmed the potential of the product and consider it as a starting point for entering North America in the future. “The North American market has a share of more than 40% of the entire marine pest control market, and a variety of existing equipment is making inroads,” he said. “Accordingly, our company is planning one POC for water pollution accidents that occur in North America in 2024, and we are planning to conduct an international “Through this joint development project, we aim to improve products and build a completely autonomous pest control system.”
Meanwhile, ‘CES’, the world’s largest IT exhibition hosted by the Consumer Technology Association (CTA), is an exhibition where you can see the flow of innovative technologies around the world at a glance and is held every January in Las Vegas, USA. AVING News, which has covered CES for 18 consecutive years, has reported CES news around the world every year since 2006, and has been selected through ‘BEST OF CES’ and ‘BEST OF MADE IN KOREA’, which select the best innovative products, companies and technologies. has been in progress. In addition, CES on-site issues are vividly conveyed through ‘AVING LIVE’.
* Special reporters: Joseph Choe, Kidai Kim, Dongkwan Kim, Mokkyung Lee, Sangun Choi, Seung Hyun Nam, Sunghwan Kim, Taeuck Lim, Min Choi
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