LG CNS said on the 10th that it made a strategic investment in U.S. robot corporations Dexmate. The strategy is to strengthen competitiveness in humanoid (human-type) robot hardware optimized for industrial sites.
Dexmate, headquartered in Silicon Valley, is a corporations that makes humanoid robots adopted as standard research hardware by global robot brain development corporations. Dexmate's robots retain the task-performing capabilities of human-type robots while applying wheels (wheel) instead of legs for stable, long-duration work.
The robot consists of a wheel-based lower body, dual arms specialized for high-speed tasks, and a head with vision sensors that perceive the surrounding environment. Precision bimanual cooperative work is possible based on more than 36 degrees of freedom. It supports a payload of about 15 kg for both arms and can work for more than 20 hours on a single charge. The company said its lower-body structure is more stable than bipedal Humanoid Robot, making it easier to apply across various industrial sites such as logistics centers and manufacturing plants.
LG CNS said, "With this investment, we have secured wheel-type humanoids following bipedal Humanoid Robot and quadruped robots, giving us a diverse lineup of robot hardware." Based on this, the company plans to offer a "full-stack RX service" that packages and combines three elements key to Humanoid Robot commercialization—hardware, a robot foundation model (RFM), and an operation and training platform.
LG CNS is developing its own platform for robot operation and training and, as part of that effort, is steadily expanding collaboration and investment for the robot business. In Jun. last year, it invested in "Skild AI," a U.S. robot brain development corporations, and together they are advancing an industry-tailored RFM. The company is also conducting multiple proof-of-concept (PoC) projects for robots trained on data from logistics, retail, and manufacturing sites. The trained robots are being verified for real-world capabilities, such as loading and sorting goods at logistics centers or manufacturing plants, and inspecting the assembly status or quality of ships.
The investment was made through LG's corporate venture capital arm LG Technology Ventures.
Lee Jun-ho, head of the LG CNS Smart Logistics & City Business Unit (executive vice president), said, "This investment is a strategic move to organically combine robot hardware, RFM, and the platform to enable large-scale robot operations and rapidly expand them to industrial sites," adding, "We will lead the era of physical AI by demonstrating a Humanoid Robot business model that can be applied immediately on site, going beyond technical verification."