Humanoid robot specialist ARobot said on Monday it was finally selected for the fifth cohort of the Defence Acquisition Program Administration's programme for "defence innovation firms".

The programme selects small and venture companies with high growth potential in defence and supports technology development and commercialisation.

ARobot said the selection makes it eligible for dedicated funding of up to 5 billion won for technology development and commercialisation. It said support will also include links to military pilot operations and trial use of excellent commercial products, bonus points when bidding for defence projects, consulting and support for global defence exports.

The company said the selection is significant because it is entering the defence sector after its technology was recognised as a private-sector general-purpose humanoid company rather than an existing defence contractor. ARobot plans to expand into defence its bipedal humanoid technology accumulated in unstructured industrial sites such as shipbuilding and construction.

ARobot said it develops the entire process in-house, from development and production of actuators, which are core humanoid components, to robot mechanism design and manufacturing, whole-body control and on-device AI. The company said the selection process evaluated its technical structure, which reduces reliance on foreign platforms or overseas licences, and its level of technological self-reliance.

ARobot's bipedal humanoid platform ALICE 5 has a three-degrees-of-freedom waist joint, a four-bar link mechanism and linear actuators, it said. The company said it is advancing technologies for heavy equipment transport and work, autonomous mobility and patrol over rugged terrain in the field, all-weather operations and independent missions using on-device vision AI in environments with constrained or disrupted communications.

ALICE 5 won the Best Custom Humanoid Award at RoboCup 2026 Incheon.

ARobot is also moving to build a mass production system for humanoids. It recently signed a memorandum of understanding with Ansan Science Valley (ASV), Hanyang University ERICA and the Free Economic Zone Authority to build mass production infrastructure. The company plans to establish a production system spanning research and development, reliability testing, modular mass production and quality control.

ARobot CEO Yunseol Eom (엄윤설) said bipedal humanoids will be a game-changer because they can use existing human-centred defence infrastructure without modification at a time when the shrinking pool of available troops and improving soldiers' survivability have emerged as key defence tasks. He said the company will contribute to building self-reliant national defence and exports of K-defence products based on domestic core technologies and mass production infrastructure.