Cymechs Inc., a producer of semiconductor robots, on Monday signed a memorandum of understanding with Singapore’s Creative Robots to jointly develop artificial intelligence robots.

Cymech CEO Bae Do-in said the two companies’ collaborative project, the revamped educational robot “Alpha,” will have more than 200 facial expressions, unlike its prototype that only transmitted information through a rectangular black-and-white display panel. 

Bae stressed the new Alpha would be able to interact emotionally with people, distinguishing it from other educational robots.

The company entered the AI robot market in 2014 with a robot that aids in the care of senior citizens and an educational robot. However, its role has largely been limited to producing hardware and not software.

The memorandum with Creative Robots is a chance for Cymech to build more advanced AI robots to gain competitiveness in the domestic robot market, which is projected to grow to 6 trillion won ($5 billion) by 2020.

Donald Dixon, chief technology officer of Creative Robots will be in Korea to oversee the project.

Creative Robots has its headquarters in Singapore. It recently advanced to India and Japan, introducing robots there for children’s education.

The partners also plan to build a humanoid robot called “The Robot Receptionist” as well as other AI robots.

They will establish a manufacturing facility for the development and production of AI robots at Dongtan factory in Gyeonggi Province, which is slated to be completed in July.

By Lim Jeong-yeo (kaylalim@heraldcorp.com)