As competition in generative artificial intelligence (AI) and Humanoid Robot intensifies in earnest, the actuator ecosystem is also growing. An actuator is a device that converts energy such as electricity or pneumatics into rotational or linear motion to move robots, cars, and other machinery and equipment. If AI is the brain, the actuator delivers the actual movement.
As attention has recently shifted to actuators and the solutions that use them, startups with related technology are seeing new growth opportunities.
According to the startup sector and market research firms on the 7th, the global actuator market is estimated at $100.4 billion (about 150 trillion won) by 2030, and the automotive actuator market at $33.5 billion (about 51 trillion won). As mass-production competition for humanoids heats up, analysis is gaining traction that related markets are expanding together. The greater the demand for actuators, the more the solution market that uses or manages them grows.
Robot hands are a representative field. For a humanoid to grasp and manipulate objects like a person, each finger's miniature actuator must be precisely controlled. Korea-based startup Tesollo has developed the Delto Gripper, which has a structure similar to the human hand, and is targeting the manufacturing, logistics, and automation markets. As actuator performance improves, the range of uses for robot hands is expected to broaden.
Quality inspection is also a new battleground. Audio AI startup Deeply supplies Listen AI, which uses AI to analyze the operating sounds of actuators and motors to determine defects. It can quickly inspect quality on the production line instead of manual checks. Recently, it expanded its applications by supplying the solution to Hyosung Electric's automotive actuator production line. It plans to enter overseas markets by establishing a North American subsidiary this year. Because it is a nonverbal, audio-based AI solution, observers say it has an advantage in expanding its market.
The vision AI field is also cited as a beneficiary. Superb AI introduced a solution that recognizes and analyzes objects in industrial settings based on its vision foundation model ZERO. Keeping pace with future advances in actuator and robot technology, the company aims to upgrade to a vision-language-action (VLA) model to implement a process in which robots understand images and text and connect that understanding to actions.
Challenges remain despite the industry's growth potential. Because non-Chinese prices for core humanoid components, including actuators, are about 1.5 to 4 times those of Chinese products, securing cost competitiveness is cited as a key task in the mass-production market.
There is not an abundance of data needed for training general-purpose tasks, and the expense of securing high-quality data is also significant. Although the actuator market is growing, related startups will likely need to solve different challenges depending on their business areas to benefit from market growth.
An industry official said, "An actuator is not a simple component but a key medium that links AI's judgments to actual movement." The official added, "As actuator technology advances, the added value of surrounding industries such as robot hands, vision AI, and quality inspection could grow along with it, and how quickly the technology takes root on factory floors—along with technical prowess—will determine market competitiveness."