Aidin Robotics Raises USD 12.1M from HD Hyundai Robotics and Samsung Venture Investment

Robot sensory intelligence specialist Aidin Robotics announced September 11 that it has raised 16 billion won (USD 12.1 million) from strategic investors HD Hyundai Robotics and Samsung Venture Investment.

Aidin Robotics is a company that vertically integrates robot sensory intelligence technology, from force and torque sensors to force control software. HD Hyundai Robotics and Samsung Venture Investment participated as strategic investors in this funding round.

With the new capital, Aidin Robotics plans to expand its surface-finishing automation solution into the shipbuilding industry and co-develop a heavy-duty five-finger robotic hand specialized for shipbuilding and heavy industry. The company will also establish an annual production capacity of 30,000 force and torque sensors.

Aidin Robotics’ technology has already been validated in defense, semiconductor equipment components, and automotive manufacturing environments. The company provides a vertically integrated solution spanning from sensor hardware that detects force and torque to the software that controls them.

Aidin Robotics was co-founded in 2019 by Professor Hyouk Ryeol Choi of Sungkyunkwan University’s Department of Mechanical Engineering, a leading domestic authority in robot force and tactile sensing and interaction technology, and his former student Yunhyeong Lee, who serves as CEO. The capacitive sensing method the company chose offers advantages in miniaturization and cost reduction while maintaining high resolution, making it the most suitable approach for humanoid robots that must embed multiple sensors at each joint. The company’s focused technical accumulation from its early days in this method has become an entry barrier in the humanoid era.

Aidin Robotics will use this investment to expand its surface-finishing robot automation business into shipbuilding. The company will co-develop surface-treatment robot automation solutions for shipbuilding and heavy industry with HD Hyundai Robotics and apply them on-site, then extend the business to domestic manufacturing in general and overseas markets including U.S. shipbuilding.

The two companies will also jointly develop a heavy-duty five-finger robotic hand specialized for shipbuilding and heavy industry to be mounted on HD Hyundai Robotics’ humanoid robot under development. Aidin Robotics will secure a world-class shipbuilding production site as a testbed and plans to apply the force-control data and operational know-how accumulated there to humanoid robotic hand development.

The company is also expanding its robot components business. Aidin Robotics plans to invest the secured capital in force and torque sensor mass-production equipment, quality verification systems, and R&D personnel expansion to establish an annual production capacity of 30,000 units.

“Unless robots can autonomously perceive and control force and contact, humanoids cannot move beyond demonstrations into real-world sites,” said Yunhyeong Lee, CEO of Aidin Robotics. “Aidin Robotics is the only domestic company that has vertically integrated this domain from sensors to force-control technology. We will focus on proving commercial value through the secured capital and customers and completing the robot components mass-production system.”