HUBO (; designated KHR-3) is a walking

humanoid robot A humanoid robot is a robot resembling the human body in shape. The design may be for functional purposes, such as interacting with human tools and environments and working alongside humans, for experimental purposes, such as the study of bipeda ...

, head mounted on a life-size walking

bipedal Bipedalism is a form of terrestrial locomotion where an animal moves by means of its two rear (or lower) limbs or legs. An animal or machine that usually moves in a bipedal manner is known as a biped , meaning 'two feet' (from Latin ''bis'' ...

frame, developed by the

Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology KAIST (originally the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology) is a national university, national research university located in Daedeok Innopolis, Daejeon, South Korea. KAIST was established by the Korean government in 1971 as the ...

(KAIST) and released on January 6, 2005. According to Hubo's creator Prof Jun-Ho Oh and his Plenary Session at ICRA 2012 entitled ''Development Outline of the Humanoid Robot: HUBO II'' the name Hubo is simply a name, not an abbreviation. Hubo has voice recognition and synthesis faculties, as well as sophisticated vision in which its two eyes move independently of one another.

Prototypes

Korea's history in robotics engineering is relatively short. KAIST only began research in 2000, led by professor Oh Jun-ho. The first prototype, KHR-0, consisting of two legs without an upper body was built in 2001. KHR-1 was developed without a head or hands released in 2003, followed by a complete humanoid KHR-2 in 2004.

KHR-3 HUBO

The KHR-3's physical specifications, such as height, weight, and the number of DOFs (degrees of freedom), were similar to Honda's ASIMO, which served as the benchmark for the project. In terms of AI and movements, HUBO fell short of the "next-gen ASIMO," which was unveiled three months later. While HUBO could only walk at 1.25 km/h, the ASIMO could walk at 2.5 km/h and also run at 3 km/h. The ASIMO was also capable of walking up and down stairs, which was a temporary shortcoming for HUBO needing further development. KAIST researchers noted, however, that HUBO could play kai-bai-bo (the Korean version of

rock paper scissors Rock, Paper, Scissors (also known by #Names, several other names and word orders) is an Intransitive game, intransitive hand game, usually played between two people, in which each player simultaneously forms one of three shapes with an outstret ...

), which was impossible for ASIMO since its fingers could not move independently of each other.

Albert Hubo

Albert HUBO () is a

, based on the HUBO, but with an animatronic head in the likeness of

Albert Einstein Albert Einstein (14 March 187918 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist who is best known for developing the theory of relativity. Einstein also made important contributions to quantum mechanics. His mass–energy equivalence f ...

. In November 2005, KAIST, Korea and Dallas, Texas based Hanson Robotics, Inc (HRI) released the world's first android head mounted on a life-size walking bi-pedal frame at the APEC Summit in Seoul, Korea. The walking frame was based on the KHR-3 HUBO, while the head was an exact recreation of the late physicist, Albert Einstein. The android was able to speak and cover a wide range of natural facial expressions, built upon prior HRI development on the Philip K. Dick android, which made its official debut at the ''

Wired Magazine ''Wired'' is a bi-monthly American magazine that focuses on how emerging technologies affect culture, the economy, and politics. It is published in both print and Online magazine, online editions by Condé Nast. The magazine has been in public ...

NextFest ''Wired'' is a bi-monthly American magazine that focuses on how emerging technologies affect culture, the economy, and politics. It is published in both print and online editions by Condé Nast. The magazine has been in publication since its l ...

'05 in Chicago, Illinois. The humanoid prototype was officially dubbed "Albert Einstein Hubo". It was developed by Joon-Ho Oh of

KAIST KAIST (originally the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology) is a national university, national research university located in Daedeok Innopolis, Daejeon, South Korea. KAIST was established by the Korean government in 1971 as the ...

in conjunction with

Hanson Robotics Hanson Robotics Limited is a Hong Kong–based engineering and robotics company founded by David Hanson, known for its development of human-like robots with artificial intelligence (AI) for consumer, entertainment, service, healthcare, and rese ...

, who developed the head. Albert HUBO served as the ambassador of "DYNAMIC KOREA", an initiative by the government of

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...

to rebrand and promote its technology internationally. Albert HUBO is capable of making many facial expressions and interacting with people. Albert HUBO is 1.37 m tall and weighs 57 kg. Its walking speed is 1.25 km per hour, walking cycle is 0.95 seconds per step, and stride is 32 cm per step. Albert HUBO runs on

Windows XP Windows XP is a major release of Microsoft's Windows NT operating system. It was released to manufacturing on August 24, 2001, and later to retail on October 25, 2001. It is a direct successor to Windows 2000 for high-end and business users a ...

and RTX.

Jaemi HUBO / HUBO 2

Jaemi HUBO was developed from 2008 to 2009. The complete humanoid robot was given a slimmer design with an aluminum endoskeleton and a polycarbonate frame, resulting in a slightly taller height but a 20% lighter weight than its predecessors. Its movements were more realistic since the arms made quicker and more natural motions, and the legs could stretch to imitate human walking, which also consumes less energy than the traditional humanoid walking based on the Zero Moment Point trajectory. Its walking speed was improved to 1.5 km/h, and it also acquired the ability to run at 3.0 km/h (which is still much slower than the new ASIMO's 9 km/h by comparison).

Specifications

DARPA Robotics Challenge

A HUBO entered by

TEAM KAIST HUBO (; designated KHR-3) is a walking humanoid robot, head mounted on a life-size walking bipedal frame, developed by the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) and released on January 6, 2005. According to Hubo's creat ...

was the winner of the

DARPA Robotics Challenge The DARPA Robotics Challenge (DRC) was a prize competition funded by the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. Held from 2012 to 2015, it aimed to develop semi-autonomous ground robots that could do "complex tasks in dangerous, degraded, ...

finals on June 6, 2015. The machine, called DRC-Hubo, is an adaptable

multifunctional device An MFP (multi-function product/printer/peripheral), multi-functional, all-in-one (AIO), or multi-function device (MFD), is an office machine which incorporates the functionality of multiple devices in one, so as to have a smaller footprint in a ...

with the ability to transform from a walking robot to rolling on four wheels by bending and using wheels incorporated into its knees. One of the tasks was to climb stairs, which the DRC-Hubo was able to do by transforming into its walking posture.

References

External links

Empas News (Korean)

Albert Einstein Hubo: by Hanson Robotics and KAIST

Two movies with Hubo
(Site in Japanese, stream requires ''Windows Media'')
HUBO Lab

Hanson Robotics
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hubo Robots of South Korea Bipedal humanoid robots 2005 robots KAIST