Aidin Robotics, a South Korean force-aware robotics company, has secured KRW 16 billionin strategic investment from HD Hyundai Robotics and Samsung Venture Investment, bringing its cumulative funding raised to more than KRW 30 billion.
HD Hyundai Robotics, Korea’s top-selling robot solutions company, and Samsung Venture Investment jointly provided the KRW 16 billion in strategic funding. HD Hyundai Robotics selected Aidin Robotics as a partner to prepare together for both the automation of shipbuilding and heavy-industry sites and the coming humanoid robotics era. With this round, Aidin Robotics now counts strategic backers spanning shipbuilding and heavy industry, semiconductors, logistics, materials, and chemicals — a roster of Korea’s core manufacturing conglomerates now serving as both business partners and shareholders. The company had previously raised KRW 15 billion in a Series B round in 2024 from Samsung NEXT, POSCO Technology Investment, CJ Logistics, Korea Investment Partners, and FuturePlay.
Founded in November 2019 as a spin-off from a robotics research lab at Sungkyunkwan University, Aidin Robotics was co-founded by CEO Lee Yoon-haeng, a PhD from the lab of robotics expert and Sungkyunkwan University mechanical engineering professor Choi Hyouk-ryeol. The company develops ultra-compact six-axis force-torque sensors mounted on the joints and fingers of robots, along with the force-control technology that uses them — allowing robots to sense the force at the moment they make contact with an object and adjust their grip or movement in real time. This “force-aware robotics” capability is widely viewed in the industry as a critical unresolved challenge for moving humanoid robots and physical AI beyond demonstration settings and into real industrial deployment.
Aidin Robotics said it will use the new capital to develop robotic surface-treatment automation solutions for shipbuilding and heavy industry jointly with HD Hyundai Robotics, targeting applications such as hull-plate and weld-seam surface treatment that existing automated equipment struggles to handle. The company will also co-develop a heavy-duty, five-fingered robotic hand specialized for shipbuilding and heavy-industry use, designed for integration into the humanoid robot HD Hyundai Robotics is currently developing. Beyond the shipbuilding sector, Aidin Robotics plans to expand its robotic-parts business more broadly, aiming to build production capacity for roughly 30,000 force-torque sensors and related components per year.
