Suncheon Robot Hosts Experience Event

Published 17 Feb.2023 11:08(KST)

Emotional Robot Sunbot Meets Citizens Up Close

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters, Reporter Heo Seon-sik] Suncheon City, Jeollanam-do (Mayor Noh Gwan-gyu) held the ‘2023 Emotional Robot Sunbot Experience Event’ (hereafter Experience Event) on the 16th at the Generation Empathy Vitamin Center inside Suncheon Nam Elementary School.

Hosted by Suncheon City and organized by the Korea Robot Industry Promotion Agency, about 800 participants including socially vulnerable groups such as local developmental disability centers and non-disabled individuals attended. The event was held in a single space for both experience and exhibition to promote digital equality between disabled and non-disabled people.

[Photo by Suncheon City]

The event started at 10 a.m. with the Sunbot performance report meeting, followed by robot demonstrations and experience activities. Experience activities included VR, AR, immersive games, drone operation, autonomous driving robots, group dance robots, and administrative drone exhibitions utilizing 4th industrial revolution technologies. Additionally, robots made cotton candy on-site, and a contest was held for citizens to name the autonomous driving robot ‘Cruiser’.

In particular, the emotional robot experience class using ‘Sunbot’ was the most popular, and the cotton candy corner made by robots attracted a large crowd at times.

Furthermore, warm sharing was practiced by distributing masks made by users of the Jeonnam Eastern Region Developmental Disability Lifelong Education Support Center, which operates projects using Sunbot, directly at the site.

A representative from the New Growth Industry Department, who planned the experience event, expressed gratitude, saying, “Many citizens participated in the Sunbot experience event,” and added, “We will use robots, one of Suncheon City’s new industry strategies, to embrace vulnerable groups and create a warm companion community.”

Meanwhile, based on last year’s emotional robot demonstration, robot seminars, and academies, Suncheon City plans to apply in March for the 2023 Socially Vulnerable Benefit Support Project of the Korea Robot Industry Promotion Agency, based on the achievements of this year’s Sunbot experience event. Through this, the city aims to lay the foundation for establishing a strategy for a robot welfare specialized center for socially vulnerable groups.