Why South Korea is an ideal breeding ground for robots

At Incheon International Airport (ICN), outside South Korea's capital Seoul, a team of congenial staff will help you find your boarding gate or escort you to the nearest lounge. They're well trained, well behaved and quadrilingual to boot – but they're not so good at small talk. The robotic airport guides, developed by Korean tech titan LG Electronics, have been working alongside human employees since the end of July 2017. Standing 1.4m tall, they move autonomously on a wheelbase, display an LCD information screen and navigate using cameras and ultrasonic, laser and edge sensors. You may also be interested in: • Why Milan is covering its skyscrapers in plants • Chicago's underground city that's becoming a design star • Harris Tweed: from island cloth to cutting-edge fabric They're not the only robots to be making headlines in South Korea, as the country prepares to host the upcoming 2018 Winter Olympics from 9-25 February in the north-eastern city of Pyeongchang.