SEOUL, South Korea, June 12, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- The Seoul Design Foundation announces that the submission period for the Seoul Design Award 2025 is drawing to a close. Designers around the world are encouraged to complete and submit their entries before the deadline. Now in its sixth year, the award continues to grow exponentially with submissions increasing from 75 in 2019 to 575 from 65 countries in 2024.
The 2025 award reflects the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and introduces four categories: Health & Peace, Equal Opportunities, Energy & Environment, and Cities & Communities. Expanding its eligibility, the competition is now open to not only individual designers but also to organizations, groups, and companies from around the world.
This year's competition sees a significant increase in opportunities, with 61 winners to be announced up by 38 from 2024. A total of 150 million KRW in prize money will be distributed, including a 50 million Grand Prize, 10 million for each of the nine Best of the Best winners, and 5 million for Concept Award recipients.
Awards are divided into three categories: Main Awards for implemented projects or products; Concept Awards for prototypes or unreleased design proposals, welcoming submissions from university students; and an Honorary Award recognizing exceptional international contributions to sustainable design. Two special prizes will also highlight excellence in inter-organizational collaboration.
For the first time, the award introduces live judging to determine the Grand Prize winner. The top 10 finalists will present their work in front of both jurors and the public at the award ceremony, with real-time evaluation ensuring greater transparency. The jury, expanded to 32 members from over 20 countries, including
- Ezio Manzini (Italy), President of DESIS and a globally respected scholar in design for social innovation;
- Patricia Moore (USA), President of Moore Design Associates;
- Pradyumna Vyas (India), the incoming President of the world's largest design organization, WDO (World Design Organization);
- Dawn Lim(Singapore), Executive Director, Design Singapore Council);
- Kun-Pyo Lee (Korea), Professor of UX Design at THE HONG KONG POLYTECHNIC UNIVERSITY and a pioneer in human-centered UX design;
- EunSook Kwon (Korea), Chair of Industrial Design at GEORGIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY and a prominent figure in academic industrial design.
Kangheui Cha, CEO of Seoul Design Foundation, remarked, "The Seoul Design Award is a platform to celebrate designs that promote harmonious coexistence among people, society, and nature. We aim to continuously discover groundbreaking ideas that inspire positive change."
Submission Period: March 17 ~June 30, 2025, 3:00 PM KST
Language: English only
Award Ceremony: October 2025, Dongdaemun Design Plaza (DDP)
For details and submission, visit www.seouldesignaward.or.kr.
** The press release content is from PR Newswire. Bastille Post is not involved in its creation. **
Final Call for Entries: Submission Deadline Nears for the Seoul Design Award 2025
The New Home Robot Embodies LG Electronics' Zero Labor Home Vision, Introducing Physical AI to Manage the Time-consuming Tasks of Daily Housework
News Summary:
- LG Electronics will showcase LG CLOiD™, an AI-powered home robot at CES 2026, representing its "Zero Labor Home" vision where intelligent machines handle everyday chores through robotics and connected home integration.
- LG CLOiD is a robot that uses AI and vision-based technology to perform household tasks like cooking and laundry, connecting seamlessly with LG's ThinQ ecosystem to automate home life.
- By unveiling LG CLOiD and its new actuator technology, LG takes a major step toward AI-driven homes, combining robotics, smart appliances, and Physical AI to make housework effortless and time-saving.
LAS VEGAS, Jan. 5, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- LG Electronics (LG) today announced LG CLOiD™, an AI-enabled home robot that will be demonstrated publicly for the first time at CES 2026. Designed to perform and coordinate household tasks across connected home appliances, CLOiD is intended to reduce the time and physical effort required for everyday chores. The system represents LG's latest development in AI-based home robotics and smart home platforms, building on the company's Self-Driving AI Home Hub (LG Q9), and the ThinQ ecosystem.
Demonstrating Household Automation in a Real-World Home Setting
At CES 2026, the company will show LG CLOiD operating in diverse home environments. In one scenario, the robot retrieves milk from a refrigerator and places a croissant into an oven to prepare breakfast. After household occupants leave, LG CLOiD initiates laundry cycles and folds and stacks garments after drying. These tasks display LG CLOiD's ability to understand the user's lifestyle and precise appliance control
Hardware Designed for Operation in Living Spaces
LG CLOiD consists of a head unit, torso with two articulated arms and a wheeled base equipped with autonomous navigation. The torso can tilt to adjust its height, enabling the robot to pick up objects from knee level and above.
Each arm has seven degrees of freedom, matching the mobility of a human arm. The shoulder, elbow and wrist allow forward, backward, rotational and lateral motion, while each hand includes five independently actuated fingers for fine manipulation. This configuration allows LG CLOiD to handle a wide range of household objects and operate in kitchens, laundry rooms and living areas.
The wheeled base uses autonomous driving technology derived from LG's experience with robot vacuums and the LG Q9. This form factor was selected for stability, safety and cost-effectiveness, with a low center of gravity that reduces the risk of tipping if a child or pet makes contact.
LG CLOiD's Head as a Mobile AI Home Hub
The head functions as a mobile AI home hub. It is equipped with a chipset – which functions as LG CLOiD's brain – a display, a speaker, cameras, various sensors and voice-based generative AI. Collectively, these elements allow the robot to communicate with humans through spoken language and "facial expressions," learn the living environments and lifestyle patterns of its users and control connected home appliances based on its learnings.
Vision-Based Physical AI: VLM and VLA
At the core of LG CLOiD is the company's Physical AI technology, which combines:
- Vision Language Model (VLM) — converts images and video into structured, language-based understanding
- Vision Language Action (VLA) — translates visual and verbal inputs into physical actions
These models have been trained on tens of thousands of hours of household task data, enabling LG CLOiD to recognize appliances, interpret user intent and execute context-appropriate actions such as opening doors, or transferring objects.
Integration with ThinQ and ThinQ ON
LG CLOiD's capabilities expand significantly through its integration with LG's smart home ecosystem, including the AI Home Platform "ThinQ™" and Hub "ThinQ ON." This seamless connectivity allows LG CLOiD to orchestrate a wider range of services across LG's various appliances.
LG Actuator AXIUM: Robotics Components for Physical AI
Alongside the home robot, LG is introducing LG Actuator AXIUM™, a new brand of robotic actuators for service and robots.
An actuator serves as a robot's joint, integrating a motor that generates rotational force, a drive that controls electrical signals and a reducer that regulates speed and torque. As one of the most critical and cost-intensive components in a robot, actuators are widely regarded as a strategic upstream technology in the emerging era of Physical AI.
LG has accumulated world-class component technology through its market-leading home appliance business. This expertise in component technology is expected to be the foundation for delivering key competitive advantages in actuators, such as lightweight and compact design, high efficiency and high torque. In addition, LG's modular design technology enables customizing, multi-variety production that is necessary for manufacturing advanced robots, which require dozens of types of actuators.
Roadmap Toward AI-Driven Homes
LG plans to continue developing home robots with practical functions and forms for housework. Simultaneously, the company will expand the application of its accumulated robotics technology to home appliances, creating categories such as "Appliance Robots" like robot vacuums, and "Robotized Appliances" like refrigerators with doors that open automatically as a person approaches. The ultimate goal is to create an "AI Home" where housework is entrusted to AI appliances and home robots, allowing people to rest, enjoy themselves and spend their time on more valuable activities.
"The LG CLOiD home robot is designed to naturally engage with and understand the humans it serves, providing an optimized level of household help," said Steve Baek, president of the LG Home Appliance Solution Company. "We will continue our relentless efforts to achieve our Zero Labor Home vision, making housework a thing of the past so that customers can spend more time on the things that really matter."
Visitors to CES 2026 (January 6-9) can experience the tangible benefits of LG CLOiD and the Zero Labor Home through a variety of real-life scenarios at LG's booth (#15004, Las Vegas Convention Center).
About LG Electronics Home Appliance Solution Company
The LG Home Appliance Solution Company (HS) is a global leader in home appliances and AI home solutions. By leveraging industry-leading core technologies, the HS Company is committed to enhancing consumers' quality of life and promoting sustainability. The company develops thoughtfully designed kitchen and living appliance solutions and has recently integrated LG's Robot Business Division to incorporate advanced robot technologies into its home solutions. Together, these products offer enhanced convenience, exceptional performance, efficient operation and sustainable lifestyle solutions. For more news on LG, visit www.LGnewsroom.com.
** The press release content is from PR Newswire. Bastille Post is not involved in its creation. **
LG ELECTRONICS PRESENTS LG CLOiD HOME ROBOT TO DEMONSTRATE "ZERO LABOR HOME" AT CES 2026
LG ELECTRONICS PRESENTS LG CLOiD HOME ROBOT TO DEMONSTRATE "ZERO LABOR HOME" AT CES 2026
LG ELECTRONICS PRESENTS LG CLOiD HOME ROBOT TO DEMONSTRATE "ZERO LABOR HOME" AT CES 2026
