"Participating in robot competitions started for fun. But at some point that fun turned into a conviction that it could change people's lives."
At the 2025 Seoul AI Robot Show held early this month, many research teams from Korean universities that have achieved results on the global stage took part. Among them, Pusan National University's Tidyboy team recently took first place worldwide in the home service robot category at RoboCup 2025, drawing international attention.
ChosunBiz interviewed Lee Seung-jun, a Pusan National University professor leading the team that has achieved standout results in the field of mobile manipulation by showcasing abilities in tidying up the home, on 26th.
Before his appointment, Professor Lee steadily gained experience by participating in international competitions such as robot soccer and disaster-relief robot contests. After settling at Pusan National University, he rented a research home service robot from Toyota in Japan, formally built a team with students, and stepped onto the international stage starting in 2018.
"At first we competed with a borrowed robot, but since 2023 we've been going out with a robot we designed and built ourselves. That became today's Tidyboy."
The name Tidyboy carries a philosophy. As the name derives from "tidy up," meaning to clean up the house, the team focuses on the ability to move objects with robotic arms and organize environments.
Professor Lee said, "A robot without arms is ultimately limited in what it can do, but if it has robotic arms, it can manipulate objects directly and carry out far more complex tasks."
The robot presented by the Tidyboy team is Anubis. This robot demonstrated overwhelming performance on the international stage and reached the top of the world. The key is a structural design that allows rapid movement in tight spaces. By folding its two arms to reduce its size, it can maneuver around obstacles at speeds two to three times faster than other teams' robots.
It can also swiftly pick up recognized objects by using a self-developed dual-arm motion planner. In addition, Anubis is equipped with a built-in quantized large language model (LLM) that allows it to understand and execute complex natural-language commands without connecting to an external server.
"While other teams struggled with server connection delays, we were able to parse commands and move on site right away. That made a big difference."
Behind the flashy achievement of being No. 1 in the world were countless failures and trials and errors. He explained, "During the development of the robotic arm driver, errors caused us to break the arm multiple times," adding, "There were many times we were at a loss due to unknown malfunctions during competitions."
In the end, by doggedly digging into the cause, they found the answer: an issue with the power unit of the control PC. In the process, the students did not give up and persistently solved the problems. Professor Lee said, "It was possible because each team member gave more than 100% in their respective areas," adding, "They must have gained great confidence by experiencing that the robot they built works on the international stage."
The Tidyboy team has competed with top university teams around the world, including Tsinghua University and the University of Tokyo. Professor Lee emphasized, "What I feel every time is that we still have a lot to learn, but at the same time we've gained confidence that there are areas we're good at."
Exchanges on the international stage become a forum for cooperation beyond simple competition. According to Professor Lee, they learn the latest technologies from each other and advance together through friendly competition.
Going forward, the field Tidyboy wants to tackle is integrating recently spotlighted large-scale foundation models into robots to perform more precise object manipulation.
Professor Lee added, "I want to develop household, medical, and industrial robots that can perform a wide range of tasks in daily life," noting, "Based on our achievements in human-robot interaction, we are also developing helper robots capable of emotional exchange and communication with humans."