The paradigm of war is changing. Moving away from wars that took human lives as collateral in wars of attrition, the era of the manned-unmanned teaming (MUM-T) system, where quadruped robots roam dangerous battlefields, is just around the corner.
Hwangbo Je-min, CEO of LionRobotics, said in an interview with ChosunBiz on the 26th on the in Yeoksam-dong, Gangnam District, Seoul, "Through advanced robot technology, a day will come in future battlefields when no one bleeds."
LionRobotics was founded in 2023 by CEO Hwangbo Je-min, a former professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at KAIST. Hwangbo decided to start the company to commercialize quadruped robot control technology in real-world settings, not leave it only in the lab.
In particular, the core foundation of the startup was the philosophy of deploying robots instead of people in wars waged with human lives as collateral or in industrial sites with high risk that people shun, to create a safe future where no one bleeds anymore. The Reinforcement Learning-based quadruped robot control paper he released in 2019 has surpassed 2,200 citations and was included in Nature's list of "10 most astonishing papers."
LionRobotics has recently drawn the attention of both the global robotics industry and defense authorities. Its self-developed quadruped robot RAIBO2 became the first in the world to finish a full 42.195-kilometer marathon course without mid-race charging, completing it in 4 hours and 19 minutes. It demonstrated energy efficiency that surpasses the limits of existing global competitors, which were confined to 1–2 hours of operation and around 10 kilometers of range.
The secret behind this technology lies in a fully in-house, 100% full-stack approach. Unlike other companies that rely on off-the-shelf general-purpose components, LionRobotics designs and manufactures 100% of core parts such as motors, gear reducers, motor drivers, and actuators. It diverges from many robot corporations that assemble using Chinese-made parts.
Another pillar of its technical strength is RaiSim, an ultra-high-speed physics engine simulator self-developed on C++. Excluding global IT giants like Nvidia and DeepMind, LionRobotics is the only one that has its own high-speed simulator dedicated to Reinforcement Learning. It calculates precise contact dynamics models at ultra-high speed in virtual space, enabling complex locomotion skills—such as predicting foot slip, traversing collapsing sandy terrain, and advanced parkour without motion capture—to be learned in minutes in simulation.
Hwangbo said, "We minimized wasted energy by directly designing not only software but also core components such as motors, gear reducers, and motor drivers."
LionRobotics' core targets are the defense and critical infrastructure markets. The strategy is to avoid simple price competition with Chinese robot corporations mounting low-cost volume offensives and to preempt Western and domestic defense markets where imports of Chinese robots are fundamentally blocked due to security concerns.
It has already successfully completed the Army's Army TIGER combat experiment and a CBRN unmanned system reconnaissance demonstration, and, based on its ability to operate continuously for 8 hours (about 50 kilometers), is preparing to enter the military multiped robot force integration program starting in 2027.
Signals are also green for entry into the global defense market. It has secured major global defense institutions with stringent standards for weapons system adoption, including Singapore's DSO, as clients, and has already recorded exports of six quadruped robots.
Hwangbo cited reliability and operating time as the keys to military force integration. No matter how capable a robot is, if its battery drains in an hour in mountainous terrain or bad weather, or if it topples over from a small impact, it cannot be deployed in military operations.
RAIBO2 obtained the highest IP68 waterproof and dustproof rating, and with an ultra-low-noise design and the ability to operate continuously for 8 hours (about 50 kilometers), it met the military's stringent required operational capability (ROC).
In the civilian public sector, it is targeting high-risk industrial sites plagued by severe labor shortages. It is currently conducting a nighttime public safety patrol proof of concept (PoC) with the Korean National Police Agency and, in collaboration with POSCO and Korea Southern Power (KOSPO), is preparing to deploy autonomous inspection robots inside power plants filled with high heat and dust. The plan is to help robots safely take over dangerous and harsh positions that people avoid.
Based on this, it is also accelerating the establishment of a stable mass-production system. To produce thousands of robots without failures beyond lab-level prototypes, it has recently strengthened management and manufacturing capabilities by recruiting executives who formerly oversaw electrification R&D at Hyundai Motor.
Hwangbo said, "We plan to enter a full-scale mass-production system by completing a proto line at the end of next year after a pilot run of several dozen units in the middle of next year," adding, "Based on a 450-pyeong factory in Yuseong District, Daejeon, we will use partners for simple parts manufacturing, but we will perform core assembly and robot performance testing ourselves to ensure quality."
Through this, it plans to respond quickly to immediate business demand and to complete a mass-production infrastructure and quality system capable of producing more than 2,000 units of the next-generation model RAIBO3 over the next three years.
Last year, LionRobotics raised a total of 23 billion won in Series A funding from SBVA (formerly SoftBank Ventures), Company K Partners, FuturePlay, Korea Development Bank (KDB) Capital, IBK Bank, and IBK Venture Capital.
Hwangbo emphasized, "Robots do not take human jobs; they are a strong shield and stand-in that protect lives from danger," adding, "With a different level of mobility and reliability, we will leap forward as a global comprehensive robotics corporations."