Samsung: robotic manipulation is developing in Japan
Samsung Electronics is also expanding its robotics activities through recruitment beyond national borders. According to a report by The Korea Herald, its Japanese research subsidiary based in Yokohama on Thursday renewed an August job posting for an engineer experienced in robotic control, seeking expertise in the control of miniaturized actuators, firmware for robotic hands and fingers, and motor control software. A second posting, published on September 17, concerns tactile and force sensors, signal-processing algorithms, and prototype testing, including development work aimed at mass production.
The fact that the two research strands are separate has a technical explanation: actuators govern the movement of individual finger joints, while tactile sensors allow the robotic hand to detect contact and correct its grip during object manipulation. They are therefore complementary skills, both necessary to make a robotic hand genuinely usable. The source does not indicate either the timeline or quantitative targets for this recruitment activity.
The Japanese recruitment is part of a broader investment. In July, Samsung established a business unit called Robotics eXperience, which reports directly to CEO Roh Tae-moon. The decision follows its December 2024 move to raise its stake in the Korean robot company Rainbow Robotics to 35%, taking control of it. The material does not clarify how the two initiatives—the Japanese research and the Korean subsidiary—integrate operationally.
LG: building a commercial network for components
LG Electronics has a different approach, with its recruitment in the United States oriented more directly toward building a commercial customer base for robotic components. The company is seeking a sales director, key account manager, and solutions engineer for the North American robotics and automation market. The positions cover customer acquisition, management of sales and profitability, and technical support tailored to manufacturers' robot projects.
This commercial push follows the introduction of the Axium actuator brand at CES in January and the launch of a pilot production line in Changwon in the first half of this year. LG intends to leverage motor technologies developed for home appliances to supply actuators to other robot manufacturers. This is a significant step because it shifts the center of gravity from its own product to supplying components to third parties, but the source does not provide volumes, customers already acquired, or expected revenue.
In parallel, LG is developing artificial intelligence for its own robotic platforms. The Emerging Technology lab in Santa Clara, California, is seeking a senior physical AI researcher for foundation robot models that combine visual, linguistic, and tactile information to guide robot actions. The company presented the CLOiD home robot in January and in August announced a collaboration with Nvidia; a facility for producing data intended for robot training has begun partial operations.
Timelines and open issues
LG's stated strategy emerges from the words of Lee Jae-mo, head of robotics strategy, during the October 28 earnings call: the company plans to launch the robotic components business in manufacturing and logistics before expanding to home humanoid robots around 2030. This is a corporate statement, not an already implemented plan: the source does not indicate total investments or verifiable interim deadlines.
The picture emerging from the comparison between the two announcements is one of distinct paths: Samsung is focusing its overseas recruitment on basic technology research, particularly manipulation, while LG is building commercial and technical support capabilities in a market—North America—where it intends to place its components. Both companies, however, are still translating announced plans into operational structures, and the available material does not allow an assessment of results. Still to be verified are the actual hires, the industrialization timelines for tactile sensors and robotic hands, the actual integration of Rainbow Robotics, and the performance of the Changwon pilot line.
