Roboligent
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| Roboligent | |
|---|---|
| General information | |
| Full name | Roboligent, Inc. |
| Former name | LinkDyn Robotics |
| Founded | May 2016 |
| Founder | Bongsu Kim |
| Headquarters | Round Rock, Texas, United States |
| Industry | Robotics, Artificial intelligence |
| Products | Robin, Optimo Regen, Optimo Dex |
| Total funding | Approximately $2.88 million in non-dilutive grants plus equity financing |
| Website | roboligent.com |
Roboligent, formerly known as LinkDyn Robotics, is an American robotics company headquartered in Round Rock, Texas. The company develops force-controlled mobile manipulator robots and AI-powered automation systems for manufacturing, logistics, healthcare, and physical rehabilitation applications. Founded in May 2016 by Bongsu Kim, a robotics doctorate from the University of Texas at Austin, Roboligent specializes in patented compliant manipulation technology that allows its robots to handle delicate objects and to operate safely alongside human workers. The company's product line includes the Robin bimanual mobile humanoid robot, the Optimo Regen rehabilitation robot, and the Optimo Dex logistics manipulator.[1][2][3]
Roboligent has received approximately $2.88 million in non-dilutive small-business research funding from the United States National Science Foundation and the Department of the Air Force innovation arm AFWERX, in addition to equity investment from venture capital firm Strong Ventures and equity crowdfunding through StartEngine. The company has participated in the Texas Medical Center Innovation accelerator and has supplied its rehabilitation robot for clinical research at Changi General Hospital in Singapore.[3][4][5][6]
Roboligent was founded in May 2016 in the Austin, Texas metropolitan area under the name LinkDyn Robotics. The company was established by Bongsu Kim, who had recently completed a doctorate in rehabilitative robotics at the University of Texas at Austin. During his graduate research, Kim contributed to the development of HARMONY, an upper-body exoskeleton designed to deliver therapy to patients recovering from spinal and neurological injuries. Kim earned a Bachelor of Science in mechanical engineering from Hanyang University and a Master of Science in mechanical engineering from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology before pursuing his Ph.D. in the United States. Prior to graduate study abroad, he worked as a research engineer at Korea Electric Power Corporation.[1][7]
The initial technical thesis of LinkDyn Robotics centered on series elastic actuators and force-control hardware that could provide robots with a sense of touch and the ability to modulate their physical interaction with people. This direction grew directly out of Kim's exoskeleton work, which required actuators that could behave compliantly enough to be safely strapped to a human limb while still delivering precise therapeutic motions.[7][8]
In 2017, the company received its first federal award when the National Science Foundation Small Business Innovation Research program funded a $225,000 Phase I grant titled "High-Force-Fidelity Compact Actuator," supporting development of a compact actuator suitable for upper-body exoskeletal rehabilitation. The Phase I work was followed in 2019 by a $750,000 SBIR Phase II award (NSF Award 1853183) titled "Force And Impedance-Based Exoskeleton Robots For Seamless Assistance And Neurologically Sound Rehabilitation." Together with subsequent Phase IIB supplemental funding, the NSF SBIR program contributed approximately $1.2 million to the company between 2017 and 2022.[3][8]
The company adopted the Roboligent name to reflect a broader product strategy that extended beyond exoskeletons to include mobile manipulators and humanoid systems. In 2022, Roboligent joined the Texas Medical Center Innovation HealthTech Accelerator in Houston, an industry program that connects early-stage health technology companies with clinical experts and stakeholders. CEO Bongsu Kim described the accelerator as a venue for guiding the company toward its next commercial milestone.[5]
In parallel, Roboligent expanded its product portfolio to include the Optimo Regen rehabilitation robot and the Optimo Dex logistics manipulator, both built on the company's force-control manipulator platform. By 2024 the company had introduced Robin, a mobile bimanual humanoid robot targeted at factory automation and warehouse environments.[2][9]
In March 2024, the United States Department of the Air Force innovation arm AFWERX selected Roboligent for a Small Business Technology Transfer Phase I award worth approximately $109,965 for the topic "Robotic-assisted rehabilitation technology," with the goal of demonstrating the Optimo Robot rehabilitation system in clinical trials at military treatment facilities.[3][6]
On September 16, 2024, AFWERX announced a follow-on STTR Phase II contract worth approximately $1.8 million for the project "Advanced Robotic-Assisted Customized Rehabilitation Technology." The Phase II contract supports development of customized rehabilitation control policies using supervised machine learning techniques and is executed in collaboration with the Human Centered Robotics Laboratory at the University of Texas at Austin.[3][6]
In August 2025, Roboligent signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Tesollo, a South Korean specialist in robotic gripper hardware. The agreement covers technical cooperation on precision manipulation and the integration of Tesollo's DG-5F five-finger robot hand, which provides 20 degrees of freedom across five independently controlled fingers, with Roboligent's Robin bimanual humanoid platform. From November 5 to November 8, 2025, the two companies jointly demonstrated the integrated system at RobotWorld 2025, held at the Korea International Exhibition Center in Ilsan, South Korea. The demonstration was billed as a real-time multinational humanoid integration in which Robin operated alongside humanoid platforms from Enactic of Japan and PNDbotics of China, all equipped with Tesollo's DG-5F hand.[10][11]
Roboligent's core technical contribution is a family of force-controlled actuators marketed as "soft-robot" arms. Unlike conventional industrial manipulators that rely on rigid position or velocity control, Roboligent's actuators continuously regulate the interaction force between the robot and its environment, a paradigm sometimes referred to as impedance control. This allows the robot to respond gently to physical contact, hold a specified force against an object, and adapt its motion in real time to disturbances or to the movements of a human collaborator.[2][8]
The company has filed several patents covering its actuator and control architecture, including patents related to series elastic actuators, force-control devices, and automation methods built on this hardware. According to a profile maintained by business intelligence service CB Insights, Roboligent has filed at least five patents in the actuator, control device, and automation categories.[3]
Robin uses an imitation learning framework that allows operators to demonstrate a manipulation task to the robot, after which the robot can replay the task autonomously. This approach reduces the engineering effort required to deploy a new task because it does not require explicit programming of trajectories or pick-and-place coordinates for each new object. The combination of compliant arms and imitation learning is positioned to address tasks that combine variable workpieces with a need for gentle handling, such as small-batch assembly, machine tending, and laboratory automation.[2][9]
The Robin platform integrates the company's bimanual manipulator with an autonomous mobile robot base. The base navigates through factory aisles and around obstacles using onboard sensors and supports a fleet management interface for coordinating multiple units. The same mobile base concept is reused in the Optimo Dex platform, which combines the force-controlled manipulator with a versatile gripper for pick-and-deliver tasks.[2][9]
| Product | Type | Primary application | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Robin | Mobile bimanual humanoid robot | Manufacturing, logistics, machine tending | Production |
| Optimo Regen | Single-arm rehabilitation robot | Stroke and neuromuscular physical therapy | Clinical research and pilot deployment |
| Optimo Dex | Single-arm mobile manipulator | Logistics pick-and-deliver | Development and pilots |
Robin is Roboligent's flagship product, a mobile dual-arm humanoid robot designed for manufacturing, logistics, and warehouse environments. The robot stands approximately 150 centimeters tall and weighs approximately 80 kilograms. It exposes 14 total degrees of freedom, supports a payload of 10 kilograms, achieves a maximum platform speed of 4.5 kilometers per hour, and is rated for approximately eight hours of runtime per battery charge. The platform carries an IP20 ingress protection rating, supports Ethernet and Wi-Fi connectivity, and is offered with two-finger to five-finger end effectors. The robot is listed by independent humanoid catalog Humanoid Guide at a list price of approximately $85,000.[9]
Key capabilities include:
The Tesollo partnership announced in 2025 introduced an upgraded variant of Robin equipped with the DG-5F five-finger hand, intended to extend Robin's capabilities to tasks that require human-level finger dexterity. CEO Bongsu Kim noted that Tesollo's hand technology was expected to significantly enhance Robin's precision manipulation accuracy.[10][11]
Optimo Regen is a single-arm rehabilitation robot designed to deliver repetitive physical therapy exercises to patients with neuromuscular impairment of the upper or lower limbs, including patients recovering from stroke, spinal cord injury, or limb surgery. The system consists of a force-controlled robotic arm with seven degrees of freedom mounted on a motorized base by way of a lifting column, together with detachable arm and leg braces that connect the patient to the robot. The arm and base configuration is left-right interchangeable, allowing the same hardware to support both upper-extremity and lower-extremity therapy as well as gait training.[12][13]
The Optimo Regen control architecture continuously regulates the interaction force between the robot and the patient, allowing the device to provide either active assistance or active resistance depending on the therapy program. A touchscreen interface is used by the supervising therapist to manage patient profiles, configure exercise programs, and review proprietary performance scores. According to materials published by the company, Optimo Regen targets a sixty-percent increase in therapy intensity and supports approximately one and a half times more patients per therapist compared with conventional manual therapy.[12]
A single-center, randomized, single-blinded controlled feasibility trial was conducted at the inpatient rehabilitation unit of Changi General Hospital in Singapore between June and August 2023, in which the Optimo Regen device was loaned from HERE Life Science of Singapore with technical support from Roboligent. The trial enrolled four first-time stroke survivors with upper-limb weakness and reported one-hundred-percent completion and attendance rates, ninety-percent participant satisfaction, no serious adverse events, and gains in motor power, Fugl-Meyer Assessment scores, and independence measures across all participants.[13]
Optimo Dex is a single-arm mobile manipulator built for pick-and-deliver automation in warehousing, retail, and light logistics. The platform pairs Roboligent's force-controlled manipulator with a wide-stroke gripper that supports interchangeable fingers, allowing the same robot to manipulate objects with a wide range of materials, shapes, and sizes. The gripper is mounted on a lifting column above an autonomous mobile robot base, which navigates between pickup and dropoff points while avoiding obstacles and people in shared spaces.[14]
Roboligent has been funded primarily through United States federal small-business research grants, with additional capital from venture investors and equity crowdfunding. According to the United States Small Business Innovation Research portfolio system, the company has received four federal awards across NSF and Department of the Air Force programs totaling approximately $2,884,000.
| Year | Program | Phase | Amount | Topic |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | NSF SBIR | Phase I | $225,000 | High-Force-Fidelity Compact Actuator |
| 2019 | NSF SBIR | Phase II | $750,000 | Force and impedance-based exoskeleton robots |
| 2024 | DOD AFWERX STTR | Phase I | $109,965 | Robotic-assisted rehabilitation technology |
| 2024 | DOD AFWERX STTR | Phase II | $1,799,035 | Advanced robotic-assisted customized rehabilitation |
In addition to non-dilutive funding, Roboligent has raised equity capital from venture firm Strong Ventures, an early-stage investor with offices in Los Angeles and Seoul that focuses on companies with Korean founders. The company has also conducted equity crowdfunding through StartEngine. According to business-data service CB Insights, identified investors include Strong Ventures, Goseong Engineering, AFWERX, JLABS, and the Texas Medical Center HealthTech Accelerator, among others.[3][4]
| Name | Title | Background |
|---|---|---|
| Bongsu Kim | Founder and Chief Executive Officer | Ph.D. in robotics, University of Texas at Austin; M.S. mechanical engineering, KAIST; B.S. mechanical engineering, Hanyang University |
| Igmo Koo | Chief Strategy Officer | Ph.D., Sungkyunkwan University; previously Chief Executive Officer at H Robotics, prior roles at LG and Medi Brain Lab |
Roboligent's leadership and engineering team includes researchers and engineers with backgrounds at University of Texas at Austin, the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, and Oregon State University, reflecting the company's mixed Texas-and-Korea engineering footprint.[15][16]
Roboligent's force-controlled manipulator platform is targeted at applications in which gentle, adaptive interaction with the environment is more important than raw speed or maximum payload. The company has identified four primary application areas:
Roboligent maintains research and clinical relationships with several academic and hospital partners, including the Human Centered Robotics Laboratory at the University of Texas at Austin, Changi General Hospital in Singapore, and the Texas Medical Center Innovation accelerator in Houston. The University of Texas relationship traces back to founder Bongsu Kim's doctoral work and has continued through joint participation in AFWERX-funded rehabilitation research. The Singapore relationship was established for the Optimo Regen feasibility study and has involved local distributor HERE Life Science.[5][6][13]
The company has also partnered with hardware and component vendors, including motion control supplier Synapticon, gripper manufacturer Tesollo, and force-torque sensor specialist AIDIN Robotics, to assemble its mobile manipulator platforms.[10][11]
Roboligent operates in a market segment that overlaps with several adjacent categories of robotics company. In the bimanual mobile manipulator and humanoid robot space, the company shares the application surface with United States humanoid developers including Apptronik, Agility Robotics, Figure, 1X, and Diligent Robotics, as well as international competitors. In rehabilitation robotics, Roboligent's Optimo Regen competes with companies such as AlterG and academic spinouts that build robotic gait trainers and upper-limb therapy robots. Roboligent differentiates itself in both segments primarily through its force-controlled compliant manipulator hardware, which is designed to enable safer human-robot interaction than rigid manipulators allow.[3]