Where humanoid robots are being tested in Korean factories, as of October 2026

As of October 2, 2026, humanoid robots are being tested in South Korean factories at three disclosed sites: two Rainbow Robotics RB-Y1 units at SFA’s new demonstration centre in Asan, opened September 30; a large display maker’s production lines, where T-Robotics will test its TR-WORKS humanoid under a ₩4.5 billion government project running to December 2030; and a CJ CheilJedang food plant, where one Neubility Billy is due within 2026. We found no disclosed case of a humanoid doing production work on a Korean factory line.

Why it matters: Korea’s ₩2.3 trillion humanoid plan names display, automotive, shipbuilding and chemicals among its ten target industries. The factory evidence behind it is still a handful of pilots, and the largest Korean factory programme — Hyundai’s Atlas — is being trained in Georgia, not Korea.

Which Korean factory humanoid projects are live, and at what stage?

Status reflects what has been disclosed: pilot means robots on site doing test work; agreement, a partnership with no units disclosed at work; target, a stated plan.

Company and robot	Site	Status	Task and terms	Date
SFA + Rainbow Robotics, RB-Y1 (wheeled, dual-arm)	SFA ART Innovation Center, Asan, South Chungcheong	MOU plus pilot: two units in a demonstration centre	Pick-and-place of irregular items that SFA’s suction systems cannot handle; customer lines to be selected by early 2027; full unmanned operation targeted for 2030	Sep 30, 2026
T-Robotics, TR-WORKS (mobile humanoid), with KAIST	Production lines of an unnamed large Korean display maker	Government project (KEIT, about ₩4.5bn), through December 2030	Autonomous movement and precision work, applied to core processes in sequence	Sep 29, 2026
Neubility, Billy (wheeled semi-humanoid)	CJ CheilJedang food factory	Pilot planned: one unit within 2026	Ingredient sorting; PoCs with four companies in total	Sep 29, 2026
Boston Dynamics, Atlas	Hyundai Motor Group Metaplant America, Georgia (US)	Pre-deployment training centre; line work targeted for 2028	Logistics prep and parts sequencing; component assembly targeted by 2030	Sep 21, 2026
Persona AI, welding humanoid	HD Hyundai shipyards; POSCO	Agreement	Welding; no units or contract values disclosed	Aug 17, 2026
Hyundai Motor and Kia	All plants	Target	Physical AI robots from 2028, all plants by 2032; process automation from about 40% to 55–56%	Sep 30, 2026

Two Korean deployments sit outside factories. In logistics, CJ Logistics has run two humanoids at Olive Young’s Yangji distribution centre in Yongin since September 3, 2026, and Coupang has been testing the RB-Y1 in a fulfilment centre since June. In hospitals, Samsung Medical Center’s consortium demonstrated two surgical-assistant humanoids in September; they are teleoperated and years from approval.

What the list shows

Every disclosed factory task is handling: picking irregular items, sorting ingredients, sequencing parts. None is assembly, which matches the global picture in our factory deployments tracker. The RB-Y1 and Billy put arms on a wheeled base; T-Robotics describes TR-WORKS only as a mobile humanoid.

The money is also mostly not the buyer’s. The T-Robotics project is government-funded, and SFA’s centre is a vendor demonstration site until a customer line is chosen. Rainbow Robotics is majority-owned by Samsung Electronics, which ties the SFA pilot to Samsung’s wider humanoid plans; see our report on Samsung RX and humanoid deployment costs. The display project fits squarely inside the government’s ten target industries.

Hyundai is the exception in scale. Jung Jun-chul, president of the Hyundai Motor and Kia manufacturing division, told the Herald Business Forum, as reported on September 30, that AI and robotics would lift process automation from about 40% at its Georgia Metaplant and Ulsan EV plant to 55–56%, with physical AI robots in factories from 2028 and across all plants by 2032. We could not find a second report of those figures. They line up with the 2028 date Hyundai set for Atlas on Metaplant lines.

Who is building capacity

On the supply side, AeiRobot, a 2018 spin-out from Hanyang University ERICA that develops humanoid platforms and actuators, signed an investment agreement on September 30 to put ₩40 billion into a research and manufacturing site of 4,487 m² at ERICA’s campus in Ansan over 2026–2027, with about 50 new hires. That is a factory for humanoids, not a humanoid in a factory, and it is the more concrete commitment of the week.