Yeosu Gwangyang Port Authority (YGPA) held a groundbreaking ceremony for a port automation test-bed project at Gwangyang Port on July 30.
Among about 150 people at hand at the event organized by YGPA were Minister Hwang Jong-woo of the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries (MOF), Vice Mayor Hwang Ki-yeon of Jeonnam-Gwangju Special Metropolitan City, and Gwangyang Mayor Park Sung-hyun.
The project calls for building an automated container port outfitted with home-made loading and unloading facilities, container transportation equipment and port operation systems by investing a combined 772.4 billion won by 2029.
It is designed to create conditions for the stable automation of Korean ports and raise the competitiveness of the Korean port technology market related to equipment and systems.
Meanwhile, on July 23, the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries released physical AI port strategies, calling for introducing physical AI technologies in advance and verifying them by implementing the Gwangyang testbed.
The project is designed to transform Gwangyang Port into a next-generation smart port outfitted with AI technologies beyond a simple automated port.
YGPA plans to introduce real-time analysis AI technologies, such as agentic AI technology to optimize yard operation, analyzing cracks and sinking in the running path of automated guided vehicles.
YGPA President Choi Kwan-ho made a progress report at the ceremony and MOF Minister Hwang Jong-woo delivered a commemorative speech before Jeonnam-Gwangju Special Metropolitan City Vice Mayor Hwang Ki-yeon and Gwangyang Mayor each gave a speech.
Chmn. Suh Sam-seok of the National Assembly Agriculture, Food, Rural Affairs, Oceans and Fisheries Committee, Rep. Joo Chul-hyun, Rep. Cho Gye-won, Rep. KwanHyang-yup and Rep. Kim Moon-soo also delivered commemorative video messages and telegrams.
YGPA President Choi said, “The Gwangyang Port automation testbed project will further raise the competitiveness of Gwangyang Port by introducing physical AI technologies in advance and concentrating verification beyond simple automation of loading and unloading equipment, and we will devote ourselves to seamlessly implementing the project to present the future of a smart port for spearheading the world and make it a center to make a leap forward of the Korean port technology industry.”
YGPA Introduces and Operates Port’s 1st ‘Early Warning System’
Yeosu Gwangyang Port Authority said it will boost prevention-oriented disaster safety by introducing the nation’s first “Yeosu Gwangyang Port Early Warning System.”
The early warning system refers to a prevention-oriented management regime designed to ramp up systematic and collective response and pre-accident steps based on collaborative intelligence by operating an early warning stage before the occurrence of a variety of disasters and safety accidents.
YGPA has built “Yeosu Gwangyang Early Warning System,” involving detecting port accident danger symptoms, issuing an early warning, holding anti-accident meetings and taking preventive steps against the potential risk of accidents.
The early warning regime is the nation’s first port application.
As danger symptoms rise, field managers will hold anti-accident meetings and implement preemptive accident prevention steps in which field managers are involved to preempt and prevent port accidents.
YGPA began to operate a pilot program against port road traffic accidents and heat-related illnesses, caused by a swelting heat last month.
The authority plans to determine the standards on the issuance of an early warning this year and operate the early warning regime in a full-fledged manner starting from the fourth quarter of this year.
YGPA will prioritize the early warning regime for 14 kinds of accidents in 10 sectors, such as ones related to heat waves/cold spells, flooding, fires, road traffic accidents, port facility destruction and large crowd accidents, and expand it to other sectors in the years to come.
YGPA President Choi Kwan-ho said, “The safety of Yeosu and Gwangyang Port is a management tenet – the starting point and final destination of port competitiveness, and we will make it a port in which people’s lives can be protected and all can use it at ease by introducing and operating an early warning system in which collaborative intelligence is in place with YGPA president and other executives and staffers participating by refining and systemizing a field-oriented danger response regime.”
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