Samsung Electronics is accelerating the commercialization of a humanoid robot it is developing in-house, moving foreign and internal robotics experts onto the CEO-led Robotics eXperience (RX) Business Promotion Office and rushing a working prototype in front of co-chief executive Roh Tae-moon. The Seoul Economic Daily reported on August 11, 2026 that Roh attended a closed-door demonstration at Samsung's Umyeon R&D campus in Seocho-gu on August 10, where a Samsung-built humanoid carried out precise finger-joint manipulations — including operating a camera to take a photograph — that industry observers described as ahead of leading domestic rivals.
RX Office Fills In Weeks
The RX office was formally launched on July 21 as an integrated organization sitting directly under Roh, pulling scattered robotics teams — hardware, AI, software and product planning — into a single chain of command. Foreign hires recruited in March through Samsung's Future Robotics Initiative Group have started work at Umyeon across mechanical development (robotic hands), manipulation-AI software, and locomotion/full-body control. Internal candidates from a job posting that closed in late July are being slotted into detailed teams "soon." Lee Dongkun, poached from Hyundai Motor Group where he directed the electric Atlas program at Boston Dynamics, heads the strategy team.
Bot Handy Lineage And A Deeper Program
The demonstration prototype builds on Samsung's Bot Handy manipulation research, first unveiled in 2022, and is powered by Samsung Research's Shallow-π Vision-Language-Action model that runs at 17 decisions per second — more than double the prior 8 Hz industry benchmark. Separate reporting from ZDNet Korea and Maeil Business Newspaper, picked up by English-language outlets on August 11, describes a parallel confidential in-house program that has been running for years, distinct from both RX and Samsung's 35%-owned Rainbow Robotics subsidiary, and built around actuators adapted from Samsung's home-appliance BLDC motor manufacturing. Actuators account for 30% to 60% of a humanoid's bill of materials, giving Samsung a potential structural cost edge over specialty robotics suppliers.
Umyeon And Gumi As Twin Pillars
Samsung expects the Umyeon R&D campus and the Gumi plant in North Gyeongsang Province to operate as twin pillars — Umyeon for research and development, Gumi for a "Robot Data Factory" that will accumulate manufacturing-line data used to train the robots' judgment and motion policies. Market entry is planned in phases: first business-to-business deployment inside Samsung affiliates' factories to gather real work data and verify safety, followed by consumer roll-out.
The Group-Wide Value Chain
A conglomerate-wide value chain moves in lockstep. Samsung Foundry will fabricate the AI robot chips that act as the humanoid's brain — the same Taylor, Texas node Tesla is using for AI5. Samsung SDI's forthcoming solid-state batteries from Ulsan are a strong candidate for the humanoid power source. Samsung's smart glasses, due this fall, are earmarked as first-person video-capture devices for physical-AI training data. Samsung has not publicly confirmed the confidential in-house humanoid program or set a formal reveal date.
Reporting based on coverage from Seoul Economic Daily, Tech Times, TrendForce, and CNBC.