Robots box at the Seoul AI Robot Show at Coex in southern Seoul on Oct. 6.NEWS1
Robotics experts at a forum in Seoul on Wednesday highlighted possible ways robots can coexist with humans and help people tackle challenging tasks, underlining the growing potential of AI-powered machines.
“Embodied AI provides the missing piece of the puzzle, as it allows AI to move beyond the screen and enter factories, homes, stores and other real-world environments,” Aoi Fukawa, vice president of Galbot, said during a forum at the Seoul AI Robot Show at Coex in southern Seoul. “Our goal is to make AI enter every industry and every household — just like household appliances and electricity have done.”
Galbot, a Chinese embodied-AI robots company founded in 2023, focuses on robots designed to physically perform useful tasks. Fukawa introduced the company’s robots with a video of them conducting household chores.
“Our founder hopes that robots can coexist with humans,” she said. “That is why our humanoid robot is designed with a large working range, reaching up to around 2 meters [6 feet 7 inches]. This is particularly useful in homes. When there are children or pets, things can easily become messy or accidentally fall onto the floor. Because of its working range and flexible movements, the robot can easily lower itself toward the ground and perform tasks such as picking things up and organizing the floor.”
The forum at the Seoul AI Robot Show was part of this year's edition of the annual Smart Life Week (SLW) event at Coex in southern Seoul, where participants from more than 500 cities and companies worldwide gathered to showcase a host of technologies, services and urban policies related to AI, robotics, mobility and smart health care through exhibitions, conferences and interactive activities.
Professor Shin Dong-jun from the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Yonsei University, third from right, speaks alongside other robotics experts during a forum at the Seoul AI Robot Show at Coex in southern Seoul on Oct. 7.SEOUL METROPOLITAN GOVERNMENT
SLW 2026, running from Tuesday to Thursday, takes place under the slogan “Where AI Meets Life, Cities Become Better,” with a focus on helping visitors experience what living in an AI-powered city looks like.
Hwangbo Je-min, CEO of Raion Robotics, introduced his company’s quadrupedal robots capable of exploring rough terrain in place of humans.
“For certain applications, we believe quadrupedal robots are particularly well suited,” Hwangbo said. “They can travel relatively long distances and operate efficiently in outdoor environments, which makes them suitable for outdoor missions and applications.”
A video Hwangbo showed featured the robots identifying different types of terrain and moving quickly across them.
Hwangbo also stressed that these robots are suited for extended operation.
“Our robots can operate for about eight hours. When I say eight hours, I mean that the robots can continuously walk for eight hours,” he said. “To achieve this, we have studied the energy efficiency of the robots and optimized not only their structure but also their control system.”
For participating companies such as Hyundai Motor and Kia’s Robotics Lab, LG CNS and Doosan Robotics, the event served as a platform to promote their technology and seek investment and business opportunities.
Visitors could also explore how eight major locations across Seoul could be reimagined around AI.
On the SLW Showroom main exhibition floor, the eight locations — Sejong-daero, Yangjae and Suseo, Dongdaemun Design Plaza, Bukchon Hanok Village, Seoul Station, Seoul Metropolitan Library, the Han River and Gwanghwamun — were presented as distinct zones integrated with AI.
The Seoul Station zone offered a glimpse of future mobility built on Level 4 autonomous driving — which allows vehicles to operate without a driver under set conditions — with self-driving taxis, a full-scale urban air mobility aircraft, a flight simulator and a model vertiport showing how such services could one day operate at the station.
The Gwanghwamun zone, meanwhile, showcased an AI-powered robot for emergency response, equipped with gas-monitoring technology designed to detect fires.
Elsewhere at Coex, robots at the Seoul AI Robot Show showed off their athletic abilities, playing football and tennis and boxing.
A robot plays tennis at the Seoul AI Robot Show at Coex in southern Seoul on Oct. 6.YONHAP
This year’s event also included its “Present for Your City” program, which gave companies the opportunity to demonstrate their technologies directly to representatives from overseas cities, while launching a new investor-relations meetup to help Korean companies enter overseas markets and attract foreign investment.
The SLW 2026 expo comes as Seoul attempts to strengthen its robotics industry. Since 2022, the Seoul Metropolitan Government has invested 15.5 billion won ($11.5 million) in 60 robotics-related research and development projects and created a 150 billion won fund to support robotics companies based in the capital.
