Samhyun, a Changwon-based motion-control company founded in 1988, said on June 15 that it had received a prototype order tied to a mass-production path for core humanoid joint actuators from an unnamed global humanoid robot company. The order is not yet a volume supply agreement.

The actuator is built around Samhyun's 3-in-1 architecture, integrating motor, controller, and reducer functions inside a single joint module. Samhyun's existing business spans smart actuators, smart power units, and motion-control systems for automotive electronics and other high-reliability industrial markets, giving the order a manufacturing track record behind it rather than a lab-stage claim.

Korean coverage says full mass production would make it a first case for a domestic robot-actuator company supplying core actuators to a global humanoid robot company, though the customer remains undisclosed and the order is still at prototype stage. Samhyun is also preparing to present its humanoid actuator brand AXLON in July, giving the prototype order a public product surface rather than leaving it as an unnamed-customer note.

Elsewhere in Korea, KH Vatec is moving from robot exterior parts into humanoid drivetrain components. The company says it has developed a double ring-gear compound planetary reducer for humanoid robots and is pursuing parts-supply cooperation with global robot makers and a domestic electronics-company robotics division. The reducer is designed to cover 50:1 to 200:1 reduction ratios in a single module, targeting joints such as shoulders, elbows and wrists, where humanoid builders need different torque, efficiency and weight profiles without redesigning every joint from scratch.

KH Vatec is also considering a staged ramp: R&D and test infrastructure from the second half of 2026 through 2027, then reducer mass-production capacity in 2028–2029, with its Vietnam base positioned for exterior parts, reducer production and assembly. It follows earlier robot-parts work, including exterior case parts for Rainbow Robotics collaborative robots and reducer development with Eastern Gear, but KH Vatec has not disclosed a humanoid reducer customer yet.

ROBOTIS provides the established actuator-company context in Korea. Unlike Samhyun and KH Vatec, which are surfacing through new humanoid supply-chain moves, ROBOTIS is already known globally through DYNAMIXEL, its all-in-one smart actuator ecosystem used across research robots, manipulators, open humanoid platforms and education systems.

Its new AI Sapiens K0 platform, which was revealed in April, extends that actuator lineage into a humanoid form factor. ROBOTIS presents K0 as an open-source humanoid platform for physical-AI developers and researchers, putting it in the Unitree G1 style developer-hardware lane.

K0 is built around DYNAMIXEL-Q / QDD actuators, including the QM-060 and QM-080, which combine low gear reduction, high-torque motors and integrated control electronics for backdrivable, torque-controlled humanoid motion.