HUBO (designated KHR-3) is a full-size walking humanoid robot developed at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) by Professor Jun-Ho Oh, and released on January 6, 2005. HUBO was one of the first advanced full-body humanoid robots developed outside Japan, and it marked South Korea's entry into the global humanoid-robotics race. It was developed on a remarkably small budget compared with the multi-million-dollar Japanese programs of the era, and it became one of the world's most influential humanoid research platforms.
Availability
HUBO was developed as a research platform. Through Rainbow Robotics — the company Prof. Oh co-founded in 2011 to commercialize the HUBO platform — HUBO-series robots have been supplied to universities and research institutes; around 20 HUBO robots of various versions have been used as research platforms worldwide. It is a research-grade robot sold into the academic/research market rather than a consumer product.
Full Specifications
| Spec | Value |
|---|---|
| Designation | KHR-3 (HUBO) |
| Developer | KAIST (Prof. Jun-Ho Oh's HUBO Lab) |
| Released | January 6, 2005 |
| Type | Life-size walking bipedal humanoid |
| Structure | Aluminum internal frame with plastic covers |
| Features | Voice recognition and synthesis; sophisticated vision with two independently moving eyes |
| Lineage | Preceded by KHR-1 (~2002) and KHR-2 (~2004) |
Significance
HUBO proved that a credible, full-body humanoid could be built quickly, by a small team, on a limited budget — a pointed contrast to the resource-intensive Japanese programs. Prof. Oh reportedly built the first KAIST humanoid prototype for around US$50,000. HUBO established KAIST's HUBO Lab as a globally significant humanoid-research center and launched a family of robots — Albert HUBO, HUBO 2, and the DARPA-winning DRC-HUBO — that followed.
HUBO vs Related Robots
- HUBO vs HUBO 2: HUBO 2 (2010) was a major upgrade and the first commercialized HUBO platform.
- HUBO vs DRC-HUBO: DRC-HUBO is the disaster-response evolution that won the 2015 DARPA Robotics Challenge.
- HUBO vs Honda ASIMO: Contemporary advanced humanoids of the 2000s; ASIMO was a Japanese corporate demonstration robot, HUBO a Korean university research platform built on a fraction of the budget.
Source: Rainbow Robotics
