Mahru II

The robot masters at KIST (Korea Institute of Science and Technology) have updated their Mahru II robot with the new Mahru Humanoid Robot that is now a dead ringer for Sony’s tiny dancing QRIO robot. Scheduled to make its first major public appearance at Korea’s Robot World conference this week, the main feature of Mahru is its ability to simultaneously move its upper and lower body independently to perform dance moves or human-like actions in the same fashion as Honda’s amazing Asimo robot.

The robot also has the ability to recognize faces, voices and objects, making it just about ready for robo-butler duty. Despite the been there done that look of Mahru, the main story here is that Korea has successfully added robotics to a growing list (including movie special effects, computers and cell phones) of categories it is challenging Japan for in terms of Asian technological dominance.

Via Dvice