Holiday Robotics Unveils ‘Friday’: A Wheeled Humanoid That Prioritizes Hands Over Legs

Holiday Robotics Unveils ‘Friday’: A Wheeled Humanoid That Prioritizes Hands Over Legs

The South Korean startup, led by a computer vision veteran, argues that the "iPhone moment" for robotics depends on dexterity and ROI, not bipedal locomotion.

In the crowded theater of humanoid robotics, a new contender has entered from South Korea with a pragmatic proposition: forget the legs, focus on the hands.

Holiday Robotics, a startup founded by serial entrepreneur Song Ki-young, recently pulled the curtain back on Friday, a 176cm (5'9") humanoid robot. Unlike the acrobatic bipeds from Boston Dynamics or the walking prototypes from Tesla, Friday rolls on a differential drive wheeled base. The machine represents a growing trend in the industry—also seen in Unitree’s recently announced G1-D—that prioritizes stability, battery life, and manipulation capability over the complexity of walking.

The reveal comes amidst a massive surge in South Korean robotics activity, including new initiatives from Samsung, LG, and the government-backed K-Humanoid Alliance.

The "Friday" Philosophy: Manipulation First

Song Ki-young, best known for founding the AI vision company SuaLab (acquired by Cognex), is positioning Holiday Robotics to address what he views as the primary bottleneck in industrial automation: the hands.

"Chinese companies are doing really well at walking," Song noted in a recent interview with ZDNet Korea. "But in industrial sites, most of the value comes from the hands. We focused on the precision of 'grasping, turning, and feeling' rather than walking."

According to specs released by the company, Friday features:

• Dimensions: 176cm tall, weighing 115kg (with a heavy 66kg mobile base for low center-of-gravity stability).
• Dexterity: A 20-DoF (Degrees of Freedom) hand that weighs only 500g.
• Sensing: Full-palm tactile sensors capable of detecting forces as light as 0.05N (approx. 5 grams) at a refresh rate of 1900Hz.
• Payload: 5kg per arm, with a proximal payload of up to 20kg.

The company claims to have achieved this high sensitivity using a cost-effective magnetic sensor design on silicon, costing roughly 30,000 KRW (~$21 USD) per sensor to manufacture. This allows the robot to sense contact across its entire finger and palm surface, not just the fingertips—a critical feature for handling delicate or undefined objects in a factory setting.

Wheels: The Pragmatic Pivot

Friday’s design echoes a shift we reported on regarding Unitree’s G1-D. Like Unitree, Holiday Robotics has opted for a wheeled base to maximize uptime.

Friday is capable of speeds up to 1.9m/s and, crucially, supports 24/7 continuous operation via hot-swappable batteries. This addresses a major pain point for bipedal humanoids, which often struggle to achieve more than an hour of runtime.

However, Holiday Robotics has not abandoned walking entirely. The company views the wheeled base as the fastest route to commercial viability (ROI), with plans to test a bipedal version in December. "The robot companies that survive 3-5 years from now will be the ones that commercialized," Song said.

AI Architecture: Skills vs. Actions

Perhaps the most interesting divergence in Holiday’s strategy is its software architecture. While much of the embodied AI field is racing toward VLA (Vision-Language-Action) models—where a neural network outputs direct motor controls—Song is skeptical of that approach for industrial safety.

"VLA is a black box, so it's hard to predict and guarantee safety," Song explained.

Instead, Holiday Robotics is building a VLS (Vision-Language-Skill) framework. In this "Whitebox" approach, the AI selects from a library of pre-verified control "skills" (like grasping, pushing, or inserting) rather than generating raw motor commands. This hybrid approach aims to combine the flexibility of generative AI with the reliability of traditional control theory—a necessity if the robot is to work alongside humans on an assembly line.

To train these skills, the company is developing "Holiday Sim," a proprietary simulation environment designed to close the "sim-to-real" gap by accurately modeling soft-body contacts, a notorious difficulty in standard physics engines like MuJoCo.

The Korean Robotics Renaissance

Friday’s debut adds another layer to South Korea's aggressive push into the global humanoid market. The country is currently mobilizing a "Team Korea" approach:

• Government: The K-Humanoid Alliance aims to secure a global leadership position by 2030.
• Conglomerates: Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics are both developing proprietary platforms , while Doosan Robotics is pivoting from cobots to "practical humanoids".
• Logistics: CJ Logistics and Rainbow Robotics are already partnering to deploy robots in warehouses.

Holiday Robotics aims to undercut the competition on price and practicality. Song targets a price point in the 100 million KRW range (~$70,000 USD), roughly equivalent to the annual cost of a human worker in advanced manufacturing, to ensure immediate ROI.

The company’s roadmap is hidden in its name: start with "Friday" (industrial work), move to "Saturday" (service sectors like restaurants), and eventually release "Sunday" (home assistants).

For now, Friday remains focused on the factory floor. The company plans to begin production next year with an initial run of 100 units, with pilot programs already under discussion with automotive and electronics manufacturers.