Ribodis: The freedom to stand with my body until the very end

Why does humanity accept helplessness as its 'fate'?

For thousands of years, humanity has built civilization by overcoming countless inconveniences. When hunger arose, we farmed, we invented wheels and airplanes to travel farther, and now, with AI, we're pushing the limits of intelligence. But one thing has been an exception: aging.

As we age, our joints wear out, our muscles weaken, and we ultimately find ourselves needing the help of others to move. We have remained silent about this tragic ending, calling it "the law of nature" or "fate."

The Ribodis team and CEO Yoon Seong-sik

However, CEO Yoon Seong-sik feels an instinctive aversion to this natural order. He describes ending his life in a bed, helpless, as "a blow to my pride" as an engineer. For him, aging is not a fate to be accepted, but rather a problem "sufficiently solvable" through technology.

Rebodis, as its name suggests, is a startup that has jumped into solving this age-old challenge by 're-designing the body.'

The ultimate goal: a robot that goes beyond wearables and becomes part of the body (Implant).

The future envisioned by CEO Yoon isn't simply a company developing assistive devices to help seniors with knee pain. He's considering two far more disruptive options. Of these, the ultimate goal he truly aspires to is "implant robots."

"To be honest, I'd love to implant a robot inside my body. Just as artificial joint replacement surgery has a satisfaction rate of over 90%, I'd like to implant artificial muscles or robots into my body to permanently extend my bodily functions."

Just as Elon Musk envisions a future where humans can be customized into robots, he envisions a future where humans can be customized into robots. He recognizes the enormous hurdles of ethical hurdles and social consensus. However, he believes this is a path that must be taken, and through his current business, he is building the trust and technological assets necessary to achieve that future.

A Real-World Solution: Wearable Robots as Natural as Glasses

If implants are the dream of the future, the immediate reality Ribodis is trying to solve as a prelude is "wearable robots." However, their approach is completely different from that of existing competitors.

A future where we take out robots and put them on like we're picking out clothes from a closet.

While most robotics companies focus on "how much power can be exerted," Livodis focuses all its capabilities on "how comfortable it is."

"For robots to succeed, they need to be like 'glasses.' Glasses are something you wear for life, but they're so comfortable you barely notice they're there. And yet, they're essential, dramatically improving your quality of life."

He wants to create a miracle that allows people who couldn't walk to walk again, but not as a cumbersome piece of mechanical equipment, but as something that integrates into everyday life like underwear or glasses. This is why CEO Yoon insists on soft robotics. He aims for "unconscious comfort," something that rigid metal robots can never achieve.

"Based Confidence" Created by Persistence

(Left) Professor Cho Kyu-jin (Right) CEO Yoon Seong-sik

Bridging this gap between this grand ideal and reality is the founding team's overwhelming technological prowess. Ribodis is a spinoff of Seoul National University's Biorobotics Lab, founded by Professor Cho Kyu-jin, a world-renowned expert in soft robotics, and his student, CEO Yoon Seong-sik.

Elements of the lab's technologies published in Science and Science Robotics

They have been proving their soft robotics technology for 17 years by publishing the second largest number of papers in the world in 'Science Robotics', the most prestigious academic journal in the field of robotics .

"If we can't do it, no one in the world can. So we have to strike first."

This isn't arrogance. It's a well-founded confidence, backed by tens of thousands of experiments, overwhelming research achievements, and over 125 patents. Their technological prowess, which enabled them to create ultra-thin, self-aligning joints that even major corporations couldn't achieve, has brought robots from the realm of "machines" to the realm of "clothes."

The freedom to stand as my complete self until the very end of my life.

Ribodis's short-term goal is surprisingly realistic: to create a wearable robot that can be worn naturally, like glasses, by anyone from ordinary hikers and runners to parents suffering from knee arthritis.

But Livodis isn't simply a product company. Just as glasses corrected vision and gave humanity the freedom to see, we aim to grow into a consumer platform company that restores humanity's freedom of movement through soft robotics.

We wear it like clothes now, but we are moving towards technology that will one day become a part of our bodies.

"The freedom to stand in my own body, completely, without the help of others, until the very end of my life."

An engineer's fierce pride in his quest to solve humanity's long-standing problem of aging through technology . BASS Ventures believes that this seemingly reckless ambition, coupled with the tenacity of an entrepreneur named Yoon Seong-sik, will ultimately become a "natural reality."

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