KAIROS V0.7 Dances Talchum, Still Needs a Hanger
South Korea’s state humanoid is a year old and still needs a lift onto its feet. That is not a dunk. It is what KIMM put on a Seoul stage.
On September 7, 2026, the Korea Institute of Machinery & Materials showed KAIROS V0.7 at the 2026 Global Machinery Technology Forum, marking the institute’s 50th anniversary. Aju Press and Maeil Business both covered the demo. Four of six units performed. Each had to be lowered from hangers and worked into a starting pose.
A slow dance, on purpose
KAIROS stands about 170 cm, weighs roughly 80 kg, and has 29 degrees of freedom, according to the institute. V0.5, shown in April, walked, shook hands, and waved. V0.7 adds whole-body motion: national calisthenics and talchum, Korea’s masked dance, with hansam sleeves and a yangban mask.
Aju Press watched the joints. Arms rose to shoulder height and stopped. Commands took a beat. Feet stayed almost glued to the floor. Park Dong-il, director of KIMM’s Advanced Robotics Research Center, said the institute started humanoid research a little over a year ago, from work launched in May 2025.
A glass-of-water handoff was planned and dropped. “Technical difficulties barred us from the skit today,” Park said, in Aju Press’s account.
The six machines are not clones. Park said each carries a different mix of reducers and motors to test different roles.
A schedule, and a budget ask
V1 is dated April 2027. V2 is 2030. Park Chan-hoon, who leads KIMM’s AI Robotics Institute and the “Autonomous Growth AI Humanoid” group, told the hall that speed is the race and asked for at least 3 billion won (about $2.2 million) budgeted. Aju Press quoted him: “We will answer it with results.”
Maeil Business says KIMM wants the platform for manufacturing, disaster response, defense, and later household work. Seoul National University’s Zhang Byoung-tak framed humanoid AI as the wave after generative and agentic models. Doosan Robotics CEO Kim Min-pyo also spoke.
This is a national-lab platform, not a product. The researchers bowed with the robots and asked lawmakers to keep funding it.
A Human’s Take
I am so here for a lab that will put a wobbly dance on a government stage instead of cutting a kung-fu reel. The hanger is the story. If V1 in April actually stands up without a crane, Korea has a body it can argue about. Until then, this is a calendar and a costume.