"Detects 'Machine Abnormalities' with AI Sensors... Protecting Industrial Safety"

Interview with Jaehyun Lee, CEO of LOAS

With Proprietary AI Acoustic Technology,

Precisely Detecting Foreign Substances

in Assembly Lines

Supplied to LG Electronics Factories

Rapid Growth of Factory Automation and Unmanned Operations

The Ultimate Goal: A “Dark Plant”

“Have you ever heard of a ‘Dark Plant’? LOAS ultimately envisions a Dark Plant. It represents the ultimate direction of automation and unmanned operation.”

During a recent meeting at D.CAMP Seolleung, Jaehyun Lee emphasized this while explaining the concept of a Dark Plant. A Dark Plant refers to a factory operating with the lights off. It describes a fully automated production environment where no human workers are required on the manufacturing line — the ultimate destination of industrial automation. Lee added, “A Dark Plant is a factory advanced enough that the lights can remain off because people are no longer needed,” and continued, “As automation trends continue to accelerate worldwide, LOAS is also expanding toward the Dark Plant sector.”

LOAS is an AI-based acoustic sensing and analysis solution company responsible for safety and quality across industrial sites through “sound.” Its core strength lies in its proprietary AI acoustic technology, capable of precisely diagnosing gas leaks, electrical noise, and abnormal machine sounds that are difficult to detect using conventional visual inspections or basic sensors. Much like a doctor uses a stethoscope to assess a patient’s condition, LOAS identifies industrial issues in advance through “acoustic auscultation.”

Lee explained, “The most difficult challenge in industrial environments was collecting the target sound itself,” adding, “Large-scale manufacturing plants are filled with heavy noise and interference, making it extremely difficult to isolate and detect accurate product sounds.” He continued, “LOAS technology can identify spatial acoustics and distinguish sound in three dimensions, allowing us to precisely pinpoint where issues occur even in such environments.”

For example, in assembly lines, tiny foreign substances as small as a strand of hair can become lodged inside products, yet remain impossible for the human ear to detect. While surrounding factory noise typically reaches 70–80 decibels, the sound generated by the product itself may only measure 20–30 decibels. Rather than individually distinguishing every noise source, LOAS developed a system that defines a “normal” sound range and detects abnormalities whenever deviations occur.

LOAS developed “AI Square,” an AI-based intelligent acoustic inspection system, which has been supplied to production lines at LG Electronics and other manufacturers. The company also possesses a range of technologies, including the “SoundCam,” a portable and fixed acoustic camera capable of visualizing the real-time location of sound sources, and an “Industrial Safety Monitoring Robot” developed in collaboration with Korea Western Power. Equipped with acoustic sensing technology, the robot patrols large power plants and factories to detect abnormal sounds and gas leaks.

Recently, LOAS was also selected for the second batch of the D.CAMP Batch program. Lee commented, “We were assigned dedicated one-on-one mentors and received valuable advice from senior startups,” adding, “It was a tremendous help to receive practical solutions to challenges LOAS was facing.”

Lee emphasized that LOAS technology has applications far beyond industrial environments, extending to any field related to sound. Potential applications include drone detection through flight noise analysis, identifying aircraft landing positions at airports using tire skid sounds on runways, and locating snipers based on gunfire acoustics — spanning industries from defense to public safety.

“In industrial environments, companies no longer want simple maintenance; they want predictive capabilities that identify problems before they occur,” Lee stated. “We will continue doing our utmost to ensure LOAS acoustic inspection technology can be applied across a wide range of industries.”

Source: Maeil Business Newspaper | Reporter Lee Young-wook

View Full Article>>https://n.news.naver.com/article/009/0005610856

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LOAS Inc.

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Tel. 02-6486-6411

Email. info@loas.ai