IFAC wearable robot challenge in Busan

The IFAC Wearable Robot Challenge was held in Busan as part of IFAC World Congress 2026, giving teams several days to work with a shared exoskeleton platform rather than bringing their own hardware. The official IFAC 2026 competition page said the challenge ran in Busan, South Korea, during the August 23-28 congress at BEXCO. The format combined robot handout, filming, a technical tutorial, a hackathon, and final presentations. ### So what was this challenge, exactly? The IFAC 2026 organizers described it as a “creativity-driven” wearable robotics competition for teams of three to five, including students, researchers, engineers and designers. The official competition page said participants used the same wearable robot platform and were asked to build ideas around real-time algorithms, live performance and public-facing demonstrations in Busan. (ifac2026.org) The event sat inside the broader IFAC World Congress, one of the field’s established control and automation meetings. The congress program listed Busan’s BEXCO as the venue for August 23-28, with the wearable robot challenge included among the on-site competitions. ### What did teams actually do once they got there? (ifac2026.org) The IFAC competition schedule said teams received their robots on August 23 in Hall 5A of Exhibition Center 2. The same schedule showed filming and video upload taking place in Busan on August 23-24, followed by a technical tutorial on August 24, a hackathon on August 25-26, and team presentations and an award ceremony on August 26 in Room 315 of Exhibition Center 1. (ifac.papercept.net) An IFAC news post published on August 25 asked viewers to support participating teams in the “Creative Video Mission,” saying teams had showcased wearable robots across “iconic locations in Busan.” The post added that views and likes would help determine the winner of a “Busan Experience Award.” ### Which robot platform did everyone use? (ifac2026.org) The official IFAC competition page said teams would use the SUIT H10 wearable robot. Separate challenge pages and challenge-linked videos described the platform as Angel Robotics’ PhAI-X1, indicating the event was organized around a common robot supplied to all teams. A YouTube description for one participating team said the PhAI-X1 is a hip-assistive wearable robot with two degrees of freedom at the hip, 15 newton-meters of assistive torque per side, a weight of 2.8 kilograms and 1 kilohertz control. (ifac2026.org) That description also said every team competed on the same platform and identified Angel Robotics as the robot provider. ### Who organized it, and which teams were involved? (ifac2026.org) The IFAC 2026 competition listing named Inho Lee of Pusan National University, Hyunjin Choi of Sangmyung University, Hyunsik Kim of Tongmyong University, Junghan Kwon of Pusan National University, Jungsu Choi of Yeungnam University and Jinyong Chung of KAIST as organizers. The same listing placed the challenge inside the congress competition program, rather than as a standalone expo event. (youtube.com) A challenge playlist published after the event listed teams including Biomech, CoMotion, HANS Robo, SMUS, HRCLab, Exollent, EXO KAI and Dynamic HUR. The playlist description said teams from around the world came to Busan, were each handed one wearable robot and had a few days to create with it. ### Why would a student or early-career engineer pay attention to this format? (ifac2026.org) The challenge schedule itself shows why it is useful as a snapshot of wearable robotics work: it combined hardware familiarization, control tutorials, rapid prototyping, public demonstration and judged presentations in one program. Because teams used a shared robot platform, the comparison shifted toward control ideas, task design, user interaction and presentation, rather than budget differences in custom hardware. (youtube.com) That is an inference from the published format and common-platform setup. BEXCO’s role also mattered. The IFAC venue page described BEXCO as Busan’s main exhibition and convention center, and the congress registration page said registration was required for admission to IFAC 2026 programs and the venue. The IFAC program listed the wearable robot challenge award ceremony for August 26, while the broader IFAC World Congress in Busan ran through August 28 at BEXCO. (ifac2026.org 1) (ifac2026.org 2) (ifac.micehub-gov.com)