South Korean robotics company founded in 2011 by Professor Oh Jun ho and KAIST researchers who built Korea's first bipedal walking robot HUBO. Listed on KOSDAQ in February 2021. Samsung Electronics became its largest shareholder at 35% stake in December 2024.
Rainbow Robotics is a South Korean robotics company developing collaborative robots, mobile manipulators, and humanoid robotic platforms. Founded in 2011 by Professor Oh Jun-ho and researchers from KAIST’s Humanoid Robot Research Center, the company builds on decades of expertise in advanced bipedal robotics, including the team that won the 2015 DARPA Robotics Challenge. Its product portfolio includes collaborative robot arms, the RB-Y1 mobile manipulator, and humanoid robots designed for research and industrial applications. Rainbow Robotics combines proprietary motion control, mobility, and manipulation technologies to create versatile robotic platforms, while its strategic partnership with Samsung Electronics, which became the company’s largest shareholder, strengthens its position in the global humanoid robotics industry.
Platform maturity, autonomy stack, and flagship-system specifications in one view.
A concise view of platform maturity and deployment footprint.
Published operating specifications for the lead system.
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RoboticoRainbow Robotics' roots go to the early 2000s at KAIST, where Professor Oh Jun-ho developed the HUBO series. In 2011, Oh formally founded Rainbow Robotics as a KAIST spinoff.
The defining moment came in June 2015 when DRC-HUBO won the $2 million first prize at the DARPA Robotics Challenge Finals. Rainbow went public on KOSDAQ on February 3, 2021, raising 26.5 billion won.
In 2023, Samsung acquired 14.7% for KRW 86.8 billion. In December 2024, Samsung increased to 35% for a total KRW 267 billion ($181.6 million), establishing a Future Robotics Office combining Samsung's AI with Rainbow's hardware.
In 2024, Rainbow launched the RB-Y1 wheeled dual-arm manipulator, quickly adopted by MIT, UC Berkeley, University of Washington, and Georgia Tech.
