CtrlK
| Holiday Robotics | |
|---|---|
| General information | |
| Korean name | 홀리데이 로보틱스 |
| Founded | April 2024 |
| Founder | Song Ki-young |
| Headquarters | South Korea |
| Industry | Robotics, Artificial intelligence |
| Products | Friday humanoid robot |
| Total funding | 17.5 billion KRW (~$12.9 million, seed round) |
| Website | holiday-robotics.com |
Holiday Robotics (Korean: 홀리데이 로보틱스) is a South Korean robotics company founded in April 2024 by Song Ki-young, the serial entrepreneur best known for founding SuaLab, a deep learning-based vision inspection company that was acquired by American industrial vision leader Cognex in 2019 for $195 million. Holiday Robotics develops humanoid robots for industrial automation, with its flagship product being Friday, a wheeled humanoid that prioritizes dexterous manipulation over bipedal locomotion.[1][2]
Song Ki-young co-founded SuaLab in 2013 as a developer of deep learning-based vision inspection software for factory automation. SuaLab was acquired by Cognex, a U.S.-based leader in industrial machine vision, in 2019 for approximately $195 million. This exit provided Song with both the capital and the industry credibility to launch a new venture in robotics.[3][4]
Holiday Robotics was founded in April 2024. In August 2024, the company secured a seed round of 17.5 billion KRW (approximately $12.9 million), making it the largest seed round among South Korean startups in the first eight months of 2024. The round was led by prominent South Korean institutional investors.[2][5]
Friday is Holiday Robotics' flagship humanoid robot. Unlike many humanoid platforms that prioritize bipedal walking, Friday uses a differential drive wheeled base, reflecting the company's philosophy of prioritizing stability, battery life, and manipulation capability over the complexity of walking.
| Specification | Value |
|---|---|
| Height | 176 cm |
| Weight | 115 kg (including 66 kg mobile base) |
| Total DOF | 63 |
| Arm DOF | 7 per arm |
| Torso DOF | 5 |
| Hand DOF | 20 per hand |
| Hand weight | ~500 g per hand |
| Max speed | 1.9 m/s |
| Battery | Hot-swappable (24/7 operation capable) |
| Locomotion | Differential drive wheeled base |
Friday features a 63-degree-of-freedom body with integrated tactile sensors for precise, compliant grasping. Its 20-DOF hands weigh only 500 grams each and enable manipulation tasks ranging from bin-picking to tool use. The low center of gravity from the heavy 66 kg mobile base provides exceptional stability.[1][6]
Holiday Robotics is developing several proprietary technologies: