Rainbow Robotics unveils humanoid robot upgrades at ICRA 2025, targets global AI development surge

What Is Rainbow Robotics Showcasing at ICRA 2025?

Rainbow Robotics, the South Korean robotics platform firm helmed by CEO Jungho Lee, is making a prominent return to the global stage at the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) 2025, unveiling substantial upgrades to its RB-Y1 humanoid robot. The company’s exhibit, located at booth #811 in Hall A of the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta, runs from May 20 to 22, drawing industry-wide attention as live demonstrations and system previews take center stage.

Marking its second consecutive year at ICRA after debuting Korea’s first mobile humanoid robot RB-Y1 at ICRA 2024 in Yokohama, Rainbow Robotics has dramatically expanded the platform’s capability suite. Its 2025 showcase includes first-time demonstrations of a Mecanum Wheel mobility system and an integrated Software Development Kit (SDK), making RB-Y1 a more modular and programmable research-grade humanoid system for real-time AI experimentation and robotics education.

The ICRA event, globally recognised as the world’s largest robotics research and innovation gathering, typically hosts over 7,000 participants annually, including leading universities, industry players, and AI/robotics researchers.

What Does the New Mecanum Wheel System Enable?

A major highlight at Rainbow Robotics’ ICRA 2025 exhibit is the debut of its new Mecanum Wheel system—an omnidirectional platform that enables RB-Y1 to achieve 360-degree mobility. This system dramatically enhances movement precision and spatial adaptability, particularly in cluttered or constrained research environments. The integration is expected to facilitate seamless indoor navigation, lab experimentation, and mobility use cases where conventional bipedal or differential-wheeled robots face limitations.

By embedding this technology into its humanoid framework, Rainbow Robotics positions RB-Y1 as one of the few commercially accessible humanoid platforms that merge advanced movement dynamics with artificial intelligence compatibility. In effect, it seeks to become the go-to platform for robotics research that requires precision mobility, especially in urban robotics, warehouse simulation, and smart home testing environments.

What Makes the RB-Y1 SDK Significant for AI Developers?

Complementing the physical innovation is the launch of the integrated RB-Y1 Software Development Kit. The SDK is engineered for high customizability, enabling compatibility with various plug-and-play modules including Inertial Measurement Units (IMUs), grippers, and LiDAR-based sensors. With APIs that support multiple development environments, the SDK is tailored for AI researchers aiming to build, test, and scale intelligent systems on humanoid hardware.

Rainbow Robotics’ modular architecture allows developers to experiment across robotic manipulation, autonomous navigation, computer vision, and generative AI integration—all within a single development ecosystem. This reduces dependency on proprietary toolchains and gives researchers more latitude in applying their own AI models, whether developed in TensorFlow, PyTorch, or proprietary environments.

According to CTO Jungwoo Heo, the company’s vision is embedded in its messaging: “This is Your Humanoid, Make it Perfect for Your AI Solution.” His comments suggest that the SDK’s flexibility and open architecture are critical to capturing academic and enterprise interest in robotics as a platform for AI deployment.

How Has RB-Y1 Gained Academic and Institutional Traction?

Since its public debut in March 2024, RB-Y1 has attracted global academic interest, becoming a research tool at leading U.S. institutions including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), University of California, Berkeley, University of Washington, and Georgia Tech. Early adoption has stemmed from its research-friendly architecture—featuring dual 7-degree-of-freedom (DOF) arms, a 6-axis leg system, and real-time remote control interfaces like master arms, VR devices, and joystick input.

Such flexibility has allowed research groups to use RB-Y1 in diverse projects, from human-robot interaction (HRI) studies to manipulation and locomotion research. Its compatibility with a wide range of sensors and actuators makes it a cost-effective yet powerful tool for labs pursuing robotic AI integration, without needing to build bespoke hardware from scratch.

Institutional interest has also expanded beyond universities. Various industry partners have begun to explore RB-Y1 for prototype development, human-assistive robotics, and warehouse automation testing.

What Role Is Rainbow Robotics Playing in the U.S. Market?

With promotional campaigns gaining over 2.47 million cumulative YouTube views and an expanding presence through its Chicago-based U.S. subsidiary, Rainbow Robotics is actively scaling its footprint in North America. This local support infrastructure allows it to offer technical assistance, expedite B2B partnerships, and collaborate with U.S.-based AI developers and system integrators.

The company’s growing U.S. network aligns with its broader commercialisation strategy: positioning RB-Y1 not just as a lab-oriented research robot, but as a scalable product line with potential applications in logistics, healthcare, education, and consumer robotics. With the addition of the Mecanum Wheel system and SDK, the company is moving closer to providing a plug-and-play solution for enterprise use cases as well.

While Rainbow Robotics has yet to formally announce commercial deployments in the U.S. industrial market, its moves indicate a clear transition from academic partnerships toward early enterprise trials, likely starting in controlled test environments.

What Is the Investor and Market Sentiment Around Rainbow Robotics?

Rainbow Robotics, though not yet listed on U.S. stock exchanges, has generated growing buzz in the robotics and AI startup investment ecosystem. Backed by South Korean investors and closely followed by institutional technology funds in Asia, the company’s recent product expansion is seen as a competitive play against global humanoid peers such as Figure AI, Tesla Optimus, and Sanctuary AI.

Industry analysts view the company’s tight focus on research-grade usability and developer modularity as a differentiator in a space often dominated by heavily productized or closed-system humanoids. The launch of customizable platforms and developer toolkits is likely to strengthen its appeal to universities and early-stage AI product developers—key audiences often underserved by big tech humanoid rollouts.

Given Rainbow Robotics’ expanding user base, particularly in the U.S. education sector, the company could emerge as an acquisition target or funding magnet as generative AI and robotics applications converge over the next 12–24 months.

How Does ICRA 2025 Strengthen Rainbow Robotics’ Global Positioning?

ICRA 2025 serves as a critical global stage for Rainbow Robotics to cement its brand as a technology-forward, research-driven, and globally competitive player in the humanoid robotics market. By participating with a full-fledged product demonstration, modular SDK, and strategic messaging targeted at developers, the company leverages the IEEE-backed platform to gain mindshare across academia and industry simultaneously.

Its inclusion of live, real-time demos at the Georgia World Congress Center also signals maturity in product development—demonstrating that RB-Y1 is no longer in a conceptual phase, but ready for institutional and potentially commercial application.

Rainbow Robotics’ trajectory mirrors a larger trend: the convergence of AI and robotics at the research-to-productization stage, with open platforms becoming central to adoption. As developers increasingly seek robots that are not only programmable but adaptable to AI workloads, RB-Y1’s evolution may position the company as a dark horse in the global humanoid race.