RS Automation

Korea's robot-parts base is strongest in hands and sensors and weakest in reducers. Wonik Robotics (Allegro hands) has the only growth round at global-supplier scale, KRW 350 billion from a state fund and IMM, 21.9 times AIDIN Robotics' KRW 16 billion; Hyundai Mobis has a captive actuator customer in Boston Dynamics' Atlas; reducer and motor start-ups such as Bonsystems and Nuvinda are still at the talks-and-MOU stage, while Japan's Nabtesco says it supplies about 60% of joint reducers in medium and large industrial robots.

Bonsystems, a Korean maker of pinless cycloid reducers and compact robot actuators, said on Oct 16 that it has held talks with Germany's Infineon Technologies on technical cooperation in robot actuator drivers, Edaily reported. The discussion centred on using Infineon's motor-drive and control semiconductors in a driver Bonsystems is developing in-house, and the two sides shared the technical requirements of robot drive systems and reviewed which parts could fit, the report said; no agreement, volume or timetable was announced, and Infineon has not commented. Bonsystems, which has widened its range from reducers into robot hands, modules and systems, wants to combine its mechanical drive know-how with power control and circuit design so that robot makers can buy an integrated joint instead of assembling reducer, motor and electronics themselves, chief executive Kim Chang-hyun said. It is the third Korean component maker in a week to pitch a broader drive-system offer for humanoids, after RS Automation's agentic-robotics parts ecosystem and Tesollo's IPO plan for robot hands, both covered by MEKAWIRE on Oct 14.

Korean servo-drive and motion-control maker RS Automation is building an agentic-robotics platform meant to link domestic robot component makers through a common interface and test bench, Robot Newspaper (irobotnews) reported on Oct 14, citing the company. According to the report, a higher-level AI would use prior knowledge of motor and reducer characteristics, load inertia, friction, stiffness and transmission type, correct it with data gathered in operation, and pass the result to RS Automation's real-time servo control, so that a drive does not have to learn every condition by trial and error; motor, reducer, encoder, servo-drive, actuator and robot-hand makers would plug in their products and compare performance by combination. The company named humanoid robots and AI factories as the main targets. No timeline, partners, budget or product release were given, and the plan does not appear on RS Automation's own press page. MEKAWIRE context: Korea still imports most precision reducers and high-end servo parts for humanoid joints, and in MEKAWIRE's coverage the government money this autumn has gone to system builders such as Doosan Robotics and Neuromeka rather than to component integration, which is the gap RS Automation is pitching for.