KIST wins top prize at robot design competition for two consecutive years

The Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) announced on the 4th that the research team of Senior Researcher Sona Kwak and Senior Researcher Yunseop Lim of the Intelligence and Interaction Research Center won the top prize in the demonstration category for the modular robot furniture system 'Bot Square' (BoT²) at the 'International Conference on Robot and Human Interactive Communication' (RO-MAN 2026) robot design competition held in Kitakyushu, Japan from August 24 to 28.

This is the second consecutive award after receiving the top award in the same category for modular robot furniture ‘OnOBOT’ at the academic conference last year.

Bot Square is a space where parents and children live together, changing the furniture and space according to the child's activities and providing necessary interaction.

It supports furniture placement and item preparation, which parents repeatedly perform whenever activities such as eating, learning, or playing change.

Depending on the user's activities, modules measuring 40cm wide and 50cm high are transformed, moved, and reorganized by combining them into tables, chairs, partitions, storage cabinets, etc., and multiple modules are combined to create space.

The magnetic interaction module consists of support and play modules, providing items during learning time and transforming them into cars, airplanes, houses, etc. during play time to aid play.

Senior researcher Kwak said, “Rather than replacing parental care, we will develop it into a robot living environment that helps children and parents live together in their daily lives by supporting the process of preparing for repetitive activities and organizing space.”