Samsung puts a Robotics eXperience office under its DX chief to speed humanoid commercialization

Korea JoongAng Daily reports that Samsung Electronics has stood up a dedicated Robotics eXperience (RX) office under Roh Tae-moon, president and chief of the Device eXperience (DX) division that already runs smartphones and home appliances. The goal is clear: stop treating robotics as scattered R&D and push humanoid commercialization.

The story landed July 21 in Korean coverage and is the one we are filing for HomeBotRadar readers on July 23, 2026. For shoppers who still remember Ballie, Samsung's spherical home companion that we track as a shelved prototype, this is the organizational bet behind whatever comes next.

What changed inside Samsung

According to JoongAng Daily, RX pulls together strategy, product planning, and hardware/software development that used to sit in separate pockets. The move builds on Samsung's 2024 acquisition of Rainbow Robotics and a companywide staffing push for the new unit.

Key people named in the report:

• Lee Dong-geun, executive vice president and head of the robotics strategy team (joined in May after leading robotics strategy for Boston Dynamics at Hyundai Motor Group)
• Oh Jun-ho (KAIST), still leading the Future Robotics Office
• Kim Hyoun-jin (Seoul National University), autonomous robots and control, into RX
• Kim Ui-kyum (Ajou University), robotic hand specialist, also into RX

Samsung is turning its Seoul R&D Campus in Seocho into the main robotics research hub (two dedicated buildings) and plans a data factory at its Gumi complex to train robots at scale, plus more global research hubs.

Factory first, living room later

JoongAng Daily says Samsung wants humanoids on its own semiconductor, smartphone, and home appliance lines as early as the second half of 2026, mainly to collect real-world data on dexterity. Roh said in January that manufacturing automation is the top priority, then a step-by-step move from industrial B2B into a broader consumer market.

That roadmap matters for HomeBotRadar. It matches what we already see elsewhere: Figure 02, Unitree G1, and Hyundai's Boston Dynamics stack are still factory and logistics stories first. Samsung is also accelerating robotic hands and claims in-house work on handling flexible, cable-like materials that keep changing shape.

If RX proves production lines and a path to profit, the report says the unit could later graduate into a full business division. Samsung also flagged more robotics M&A and strategic investment at its Q1 shareholder presentation.

What this means for HomeBotRadar

This is an org and roadmap story, not a new consumer SKU. We are not adding a Samsung humanoid to the catalog yet, and we are not changing Ballie scores just because RX exists.

Ballie remains the Samsung home robot we track: a concept/prototype with no buyable path after the consumer launch was shelved. RX and Rainbow Robotics are the industrial and humanoid track. Compare Ballie with EBO X or Loona if you want mobile home companions you can actually evaluate today, and watch Compare as Samsung publishes shippable hardware rather than org charts.