Shake hands with the robot, and place the paper cup on the robot arm.
On the 20th at the Ulsan Exhibition and Convention Center in Ulju County, Ulsan. In front of the joint Daegu–North Gyeongsang booth at the Local Era Expo, a person-sized Humanoid Robot moved its arms and waist, scooped freshly popped popcorn, and handed it to visitors. To keep the popcorn from getting soggy, it periodically stirred the popcorn with its robotic arm and waved its arm to greet visitors who received popcorn.
Right next to it, a robot wearing a black dopo robe and a gat hat drew attention. Reminiscent of the Lion Boys from the popular animation "K-pop Demon Hunters," these robots were produced by Neuromeka, a robot specialist corporations with a production plant in North Gyeongsang. North Gyeongsang Province has been speeding up efforts to foster the robot industry, including launching an AI–robot industry council in Sep. Daegu Metropolitan City also put forward a robot arm holding panels that read "AI robot" and "capital Daegu."
The Local Era Expo, which opened on the 19th, was set up as a venue for local governments to promote competitive future technologies led by AI and robots. From early morning, it was packed with municipal and provincial officials, corporate people, and family visitors holding their children's hands.
Host city Ulsan put "AI-based energy city" at the forefront. The plan is to combine AI with key manufacturing industries—automobiles (Hyundai Motor), shipbuilding (HD Hyundai Heavy Industries), petrochemicals (S-OIL), and nonferrous metals (Korea Zinc)—to achieve digital transformation across industry. In the future city model at Ulsan's booth, pressing a button lit up and linked an industrial complex, research complex, university, and AI data center; pressing the button again created a display of energy flows from hydrogen, LNG, and wind power complexes to the data center. Ulsan also brought out an AI omok robot to draw visitors.
Busan put a model of the "next-generation Busan-type express rail (BuTX)" front and center. The BuTX project, which connects Gadeokdo New Airport and the East Busan Osiria tourism complex, passed a private-investment feasibility study last month. Once it opens, travel time from Gadeokdo New Airport to Osiria will be shortened to 33 minutes. If you sit on the seats inside the BuTX model, it takes your photo and places it on the front page of a mock newspaper titled "Global hub city Busan, full operation of BuTX."
Gyeonggi Province focused on promoting its semiconductor strategy under the theme "K-semiconductor global hub." When visitors inserted a glowing "Illuming Cube" into the table, a display immediately rendered Gyeonggi's semiconductor mega-cluster. A craft piece called a "wafer tree," which expressed advanced semiconductor technology in the form of a tree of life, was also on display.
North Jeolla Province placed a "flame of hope" sculpture in the center of the exhibition hall to express its wish to host the Jeonju Summer Olympics. When two visitors stepped on the floor sensors and did on-the-spot jumps, a flame blazed on the display; victory went to the person who stepped on the sensors more.
This year's Local Era Expo runs through the 21st. A total of 17 metropolitan and provincial governments nationwide, 95 local governments, and offices of education are participating, and 366 booths have been set up. Discussions and presentations on 26 themes, involving domestic and international experts, government, universities, and innovation institutions, also continue.