South Korea-U.S. team unveils robot that can dress wearers in 10 seconds

A South Korea-U.S. research team has unveiled a self-dressing robot that can pull clothing onto a wearer in about 10 seconds without using the hands. Built around clothing embedded with air-powered “vine” robots, the system is aimed at one of daily life’s most basic bottlenecks: getting dressed when age, injury or disability makes that task difficult.

Researchers from KAIST and Stanford University demonstrated a sleeve prototype of the system at KAIST in Daejeon, South Korea, on July 14, 2026. A Reuters image caption identified Kim Nam Gyun as a KAIST postdoctoral researcher and soft robotics engineer as he showed the prototype. The public demonstration pushed the work beyond a laboratory concept and into the kind of human-centered test that assistive robotics must pass before it can matter outside research settings.

The design depends on soft robotic elements built into the clothing itself, rather than a rigid machine standing apart from the person. That matters for a task like dressing, which requires close contact with skin, fabric folds and unpredictable body movement. A system that helps someone put on a sleeve or suit without relying on hand strength could be useful in assisted living, rehabilitation and home care, especially for older adults and people recovering from injury.

The researchers also pointed to possible uses beyond personal dressing. The technology could have applications in chip factory cleanrooms and emergency services, where workers may need to don specialized clothing quickly and with minimal contamination or delay. Those settings raise the same core questions the home version would face: whether the system can be made safe enough to work around the body, fast enough to be practical, and affordable enough to leave the lab.

The project adds to a growing line of South Korean assistive robotics work. In December 2024, another South Korean team drew attention with an “Iron Man” robot designed to help paraplegics walk, showing how the country’s robotics research is increasingly centered on mobility and care rather than industrial automation alone. The new self-dressing system extends that push into a more intimate part of daily independence, where success will depend less on spectacle than on reliability, speed and real-world usability.