AIDIN Robotics

Korea funds physical AI through at least four ministry programmes and several public-private alliances, and the largest awards disclosed so far have gone to established manufacturers rather than startups. Of KRW 444.9 billion in project budgets that MEKAWIRE has verified from company and institution releases, Daedong leads KRW 297.7 billion, Doosan Robotics KRW 98.9 billion and Neuromeka KRW 17.5 billion, and no project is led by a venture-backed startup; startups enter as consortium members, chip suppliers or through regulatory sandbox approvals.

Korean robot-hand maker Tesollo has appointed KB Securities as lead manager for a technology-special listing and expects cumulative sales of its multi-jointed hands and grippers to pass 1,000 units by the end of 2026, Robot Newspaper (irobotnews) reported on Oct 14; no company release was found, so the details are unconfirmed. According to the report, Tesollo has moved to a larger plant and built out assembly, inspection and quality control for repeat production, and sells one- to five-finger grippers and hands into factory automation, logistics, AI training and humanoids. Its backers named in the report include Samsung Venture Investment and POSCO Technology Investment, auto-parts maker HL Mando and Daesung Hi-Tech, which took common shares directly, and Platinum Technology Investment, whose largest shareholder is Jahwa Electronics. CEO Kim Young-jin said a robot hand becomes an industry only when the same quality can be built and shipped repeatedly. Tesollo is the second Korean dexterous-hand maker in MEKAWIRE's coverage to lean on industrial shareholders this autumn, after AIDIN Robotics' KRW 16 billion round from HD Hyundai Robotics and Samsung Ventures in September.

Korean force and tactile sensor maker AIDIN Robotics said it raised KRW 16 billion in strategic investment from HD Hyundai Robotics and Samsung Venture Investment, announced on Sept 11. HD Hyundai Robotics said in a press release that its share was KRW 13 billion and that the two companies will co-develop a five-fingered hand for shipbuilding and heavy industry, later to be fitted to the humanoid it is developing, plus force-controlled grinding and polishing robots for hull work.

Wonik Robotics said in a press release on Sept 7 that it has launched the Allegro Hand V6 F, a five-finger hand with 20 degrees of freedom that is more than 20% smaller overall than its predecessor, extending a line that until now centred on four-finger models. Pressure sensors on the fingertips, finger joints and palm record where, when and how hard the hand touches an object, and the fingertips light up on contact, so the hand doubles as a source of grasp data for manipulation algorithms and AI training. Users can command it by current or by joint position, adjust its stiffness for heavy or fragile objects, and connect it to other systems over Modbus; friction and temperature compensation is meant to keep control consistent. The company said more than 180 research partners use the Allegro Hand and that a V6 V model with a vision-based tactile sensor will follow. The launch comes after Wonik secured a KRW 350 billion equity plan, KRW 150 billion from the National Growth Fund's advanced strategic industry fund and KRW 200 billion from private investors, for a robot-hand plant and AX centre in Wanju, North Jeolla, which MEKAWIRE reported on Aug 28.