LG Joins the Humanoid Robot Race with KAPEX
Another day, another tech giant throws its hat into the increasingly crowded humanoid robot ring. This time it’s LG, who, in a joint effort with the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST), has unveiled its bipedal creation, KAPEX. While its gait might be a bit too “angular” for the fashion runway, its ambitions are anything but clumsy. LG is clearly signalling that the race to put a robot in every home (or at least every high-tech lab) is heating up.
The bot isn’t just a pretty (and slightly blocky) face. KAPEX is powered by some serious internal hardware and software. Its brain is LG’s own Exaone visual language model, giving it advanced cognitive and communicative abilities. This is paired with high-end Korean-made actuators for fluid movement and a multi-tactile dexterous hand that promises nuanced interaction with its environment. It seems LG is aiming for a bot that can both think and do.
Mark your calendars, because this new mechanical colleague is scheduled for a November release this year. This isn’t just a one-off project, either. LG has already announced its grand entrance into the home humanoid robot market at CES 2025, with an AI robot codenamed Q9 serving as a foundational model. The future is coming, and apparently, it will be doing chores.
Why is this important?
LG’s entry into the humanoid robot market is a major validation for the entire sector. When a consumer electronics titan like LG invests heavily, it signals a shift from niche industrial applications to a potential mass-market future. This move intensifies the competition with established and emerging players like Boston Dynamics, Tesla, and Figure AI. It pushes the industry closer to the long-held sci-fi dream of household robots, accelerating innovation in AI, locomotion, and human-robot interaction.
