Gangnam-gu, Seoul, '2026 Gangnam Robot Plus Festival' held at COEX from 11th to 13th

(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Jeong Jun-young = Seoul Gangnam-gu (district mayor Kim Hyun-ki) announced on the 8th that it will hold the '2026 Gangnam Robot Plus Festival' in the COEX East Gate lobby and plaza from the 11th to the 13th.

This year's event, now in its 4th year, was held under the theme of 'Gangnam's great transformation into a future city where people and robots coexist', and was prepared to allow people to experience changes in their daily lives in the future by experiencing robots.

36 organizations, including companies, research institutes, universities, and schools, will participate and operate 47 booths. In four areas, including ▲ Robot Policy Performance Hall, ▲ Robot Technology Exhibition Hall, ▲ Robot Future Talent Hall, and ▲ Robot Experience Hall, patrolling, environmental sanitation, and self-driving robots, artificial intelligence (AI) skin measurement robots, emotional humanoids, four-legged walking robots, and medical transport and assistance robots will be showcased.

The 'AI Quadrilateral Robot Competition' co-hosted by the district and Kwangwoon University will also be held. College students team up to compete in two areas, autonomous driving and controlled driving, demonstrating the feasibility of using quadrupedal robots in an actual urban environment.

On the 11th, a talk concert will be held where KAIST professor Kim Dae-sik and announcer Han Seok-jun will look at the future era of robots under the theme of 'Metal Colleague Sitting Next to Me'.

The 'AI/Robot Challenge', in which children and their families work with robots, will also be held on the weekend.

On the 13th, the 'Mission Challenge' will be held in which 60 4th to 6th grade elementary school students will participate. Divided into soccer robot and basketball robot categories, participants compete to see how quickly they can carry out the mission of putting a ball into the goal by manipulating a given robot.

On the main stage, performances and events such as drawing performances and robot dance challenges will continue for three days.

District Mayor Kim Hyun-ki said, “This festival will be a venue where residents can experience the changes in daily life in the future where people and robots will coexist,” and added, “We will develop Gangnam into an innovative city that leads the robot industry in Korea.”