Seoul's AI Robot Show Puts Six Humanoids at COEX This Week

So basically: Seoul is running its 2026 AI Robot Show from Tuesday, Oct. 6, to Thursday, Oct. 8, at COEX in Gangnam. The city says 51 companies are taking part. Six Korean humanoid models are on open display, and firefighters and police will run search and rescue missions with robots.

Seoul is 13 hours ahead of New York, so Tuesday has already started there.

What is on the floor

This is the show’s second year. It runs in COEX Hall B as part of Smart Life Week 2026.

The bigger names the city lists are Hyundai Motor and Kia’s Robotics Lab, LG CNS, and Doosan Robotics. Hyundai and Kia are showing MobED, a small mobility platform, and X-ble Shoulder, a wearable robot. Doosan is showing food and drink cobots. LG CNS is showing smart home tech.

There is also a startup zone with 26 physical AI companies. The city lists four-legged robots, self-driving, wearables, care robots, and medical robots.

The humanoid part

Six Korean humanoid models are on open display. The only one the city names is Robotis’s Sapiens.

The humanoids do a show mixing K-pop and traditional Korean culture three times a day. There is robot tennis, soccer, and boxing. A robot parade runs every day at noon.

The useful part

The Robot Rescue Challenge is set in a mock disaster and public safety scene. Firefighters and police run search and rescue missions using remote control and AI-based autonomy.

There is a Physical AI Forum on Oct. 7 and one-on-one meetings between robot companies and investors.

What it is not

This is a city expo. It is not a product launch, a sale, or a deployment. The city has not named all six humanoids, and it has not said which ones, if any, are doing real work anywhere.

My take

The dancing and boxing are filler. The rescue challenge with actual firefighters and police is the only part that tests robots against people who would use them. If anything worth following comes out of COEX this week, it comes from there.