LG CNS announced Thursday it has made a strategic investment in U.S. robotics company Dexmate, becoming the first Korean firm to do so, as it seeks to strengthen hardware capabilities for humanoid robots optimized for industrial settings. The investment was made through LG Technology Ventures, LG's corporate venture capital arm.
Based in Silicon Valley, Dexmate manufactures humanoid robots whose quality and performance have earned recognition as standard research hardware among global robot brain developers. The company's robots feature wheels instead of legs to enable stable, extended operations while maintaining the task execution capabilities of humanoid robots.
The robots consist of a wheel-based lower body, dual arms specialized for high-speed tasks, and a head equipped with vision sensors to detect the surrounding environment. With more than 36 degrees of freedom, the robots can perform precise bimanual collaborative tasks. They support payload capacity of approximately 15 kilograms per arm and can operate for over 20 hours on a single charge. The more stable lower body structure compared to bipedal humanoid robots makes them suitable for various industrial settings including logistics centers and manufacturing plants.
With this investment, LG CNS has expanded its robot hardware lineup to include wheel-type humanoids alongside bipedal humanoids and quadruped robots. The company plans to offer "Full-Stack RX Services" that package three key elements for humanoid robot commercialization: hardware, Robot Foundation Models (RFM), and operation and learning platforms.
LG CNS is developing its own platform for robot operation and learning. The company continues to expand partnerships and investments for its robotics business. In June last year, it invested in U.S. robot brain developer Skild AI and formed a partnership to jointly advance industry-specific RFMs. The company is also conducting multiple proof-of-concept projects with robots trained on logistics, retail, and manufacturing data. These trained robots are being tested on real-world tasks such as loading and sorting items in logistics centers and manufacturing plants, and inspecting assembly status or quality on ships.
"This investment is a strategic move by LG CNS to organically combine robot hardware, RFM, and platforms to enable large-scale robot operations and accelerate deployment across industrial sites," said Lee Jun-ho, Executive Vice President and Head of Smart Logistics & City Business Unit at LG CNS. "We will lead the physical AI era by demonstrating humanoid robot business models that can be immediately applied to real-world settings, going beyond technology verification."