KIST held a demonstration where their robots delivered breakfast, and a new whole-body motion-capture technology for robots. KIST is hoping to develop Mahru-Z and Mahru-M to the point where they can aid families in household tasks, including washing the dishes and preparing food.

The 1.3-meter, 55-kilogram “Mahru-Z,” an “assistant” robot developed by the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST), has a human-like body with a rotating head, arms and legs, and is capable of “seeing” three dimensional objects and recognizing jobs that need to be done. It senses the unattended dirty rooms and can navigate across the room to perfectly sort them out. Mahru-Z could also work in tandem with its fellow maid robot, Marhu-M, an earlier KIST creation that moves on wheels, as both machines can be remote controlled through a computer server.

“The most distinctive strength of Mahru-Z is its visual ability to observe objects, recognise the tasks needed to be completed, and execute them,� said You Bum-Jae, head of the cognitive robot centre at the Korea Institute of Science and Technology.