Korea clears 20 Robros humanoids to work alongside people at chip, car-parts, shipyard and logistics sites

South Korea approved a regulatory exemption on October 13, 2026 that lets Robros put 20 of its IGRIS-C bipedal humanoids to work at four companies: nepes in semiconductor packaging, Sungwoo Hitech in auto parts, HD Hyundai Samho in shipbuilding and Delivery Lab in logistics. The decision came at the sixth 2026 meeting of the Industrial Convergence Regulatory Special Committee, run by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Resources and held at the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Seoul.

Why it matters: Korean safety rules require fences around industrial robots on the assumption that they work in fixed positions. A humanoid that walks between stations and shares floor space with workers did not fit those rules. This exemption gives it a legal basis, for this trial and under safety conditions.

What will the Robros humanoids do at each site?

The ministry and Global Economic list one task per company:

• nepes (semiconductors): cleaning contaminants off circular CRS parts used in back-end packaging
• Sungwoo Hitech (auto parts): placing car body parts in set positions
• HD Hyundai Samho (shipbuilding): loading scaffolding pieces used in ship construction
• Delivery Lab (logistics): loading packaged goods in cold-chain logistics

The ministry says the scope now runs across core manufacturing sectors and goes beyond simple transport to precision cleaning and low-temperature logistics, and frames the trial as part of its M.AX manufacturing-AI programme. The same meeting approved two other items: Maum AI’s four-legged patrol robots on riverside paths and in parks in Cheonan, the committee’s first exemption for quadrupeds on pedestrian routes, and an AI security platform at Bundang CHA Hospital.

Why does a fence rule matter for humanoids?

Because it decides whether a humanoid can stand next to a worker at all. The Occupational Safety and Health Standards Rules require safety fences around industrial robots, a rule written for robots that work in fixed positions. The exemption lets Robros’ robots work in spaces shared with people, provided the sites carry out risk assessments and risk-reduction measures under the Ministry of Employment and Labor. It covers this trial only. The government says it will use the results to revise industrial robot safety standards more broadly. Korea’s separate draft Mobile Robot Special Act deals with buildings and public space; this decision deals with the factory floor.

Twenty units is also large by Korean standards. Our tracker of Korean factory humanoid pilots found disclosed unit counts of two robots at SFA’s demonstration centre and one planned for a CJ CheilJedang plant. Robros had produced 36 IGRIS-C units and sold 18 as of August 31, including nine supplied in August to sites that included a semiconductor cleanroom, a car plant and a refrigerated food logistics centre; see our IGRIS-C report. Neither the ministry nor Robros has said whether the 20 include those units.

Also not disclosed: how long the trial runs, when it starts, and how much of the work will be autonomous rather than teleoperated. Robros said on October 2 that it plans to release a humanoid AI model for manufacturing and logistics in the first half of 2027, Humanoids Daily reported. Until then, the trial will show whether a shared-floor humanoid is safe under Korean rules, not how productive it is.