Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) has signed an agreement to acquire a 10 percent stake in Konan Technology, a local company dedicated to artificial intelligence (AI) and big data, a move to take its aviation and defense expertise to a new level through digital convergence backed by disruptive technologies.

The country’s leading aerospace and defense company said on Thursday the investment will facilitate mutual collaboration for the development of AI-based prognostics and health management (PHM).

Prognostics and health management is an emerging discipline to scientifically manage the health condition of engineering systems like aircraft and their critical components. PHM can be applied to KAI’s fighter jets (KF-21, FA-50), helicopters (Surion) and Urban Air Mobility (UAM) to maximize maintenance efficiency.

Another aspect of the investment is to secure elementary technology to be used in future aviation electronics and UAM.

KAI is planning to develop core technologies for future aircraft operation step by step through joint development of AI algorithms for autonomous flight and collision avoidance and analysis software tools for large-capacity flight and operation data.

KAI is also active in new projects such as military logistics big data project for collecting, storing, analyzing, and utilizing defense-related data, and defense core technology development project to analyze the timing for maintenance and total costs by diagnosing the state of weapon systems.

By Moon Kwang-min and Minu Kim

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