An analysis found that Korea has some competitiveness in the institutional sector of actuation in the Humanoid Robot parts market, but is weak in sensing, intelligence, and motion control.
As the Humanoid Robot industry enters the commercialization stage, securing supply chains for key parts has become a decisive factor in national competitiveness. There are calls to reduce dependence on foreign sources for core components and raise the domestic parts localization rate, currently around 40%.
On the 27th, according to the robotics industry, the market research firm TrendForce, in a report titled "Humanoid Robot Part 1: U.S.-China rivalry and who controls the supply chain," evaluated the parts supply chain influence of China, the United States, Europe, Japan, and Korea based on the Component Supply Chain Influence Index (CSCII).
It divided Humanoid Robot parts into the institutional sector of sensing, intelligence, motion control, and actuation, and rated each institutional sector across four grades (overwhelming, strong, moderate, developing). The grades were assigned through qualitative and quantitative assessments, based on expert opinions, of five elements: status within the industry, technology barriers and substitutability, actual adoption level, production capacity and diffusion speed, and policy support and geopolitical supply resilience.
TrendForce rated Korea as "strong" in parts competitiveness in the actuation institutional sector. Actuation institutional sector parts include batteries, control modules, charging modules, cooling solutions, powertrains, drivers, and encoders.
TrendForce rated Korea's sensing institutional sector as "moderate," and its intelligence and motion control institutional sectors as "developing," respectively. TrendForce said, "Other institutional sectors beyond actuation need stronger public-private cooperation to accelerate ecosystem development."
China was rated "overwhelming" in the actuation institutional sector. The intelligence and motion control institutional sectors were rated "strong." TrendForce said, "China has the most comprehensive foundation across all four institutional sectors."
The United States was rated "overwhelming" in the intelligence institutional sector, and Japan was rated "overwhelming" in the motion control institutional sector. Europe was rated "strong" in the sensing and motion control institutional sectors, but had no institutional sector rated "overwhelming."
In the robotics industry, there is an outlook that Korea can leverage the parts supply chain built in the auto industry to grow competitiveness in robot parts. Baek Jong-min, an analyst at Yuanta Securities Korea, said, "Automobiles have wiring and batteries, which is similar to robots," adding, "As Hyundai Motor enters the Humanoid Robot business, companies within its value chain are naturally shifting into robot parts makers."
Global investment bank Goldman Sachs noted, "Korea has expertise in electric motors, sensors, control units, and precision engineering in the auto industry," adding, "These technologies can be effectively applied in the robotics field as well." Goldman Sachs saw Korean companies becoming key suppliers for regions other than China.
Experts say an ecosystem that supports research and development and market entry must be created to strengthen the competitiveness of domestic parts makers. The domestic localization rate for robot parts is around 40%.
Choi Byung-ho, a professor at the Korea University Artificial Intelligence Research Institute, said, "Improving the competitiveness of robot parts depends on the localization rate, but Korea's parts localization rate is around 40%, leaving it heavily dependent on China and Japan." Choi said, "There is a need to build an ecosystem in which parts makers can strengthen research and development and manufacturing capabilities through support that matches supply with demand."