HUBO

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(CC) Photo: Min Lee
Albert HUBO.

HUBO is a humanoid robot developed at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology. The first HUBO, KHR-3, was the culmination of 4 years of research based on three earlier prototypes, KHR-0, 1, and 2, and it was officially unveiled to the public in January 6 of 2005. KHR-3 is physically similar to Honda's ASIMO, weighing 56 kg and standing at a height of 125 cm. Albert HUBO is the second and latest HUBO that features an artificial head of Albert Einstein in place of the previous design resembling a CRT monitor. The name HUBO is short for humanoid robot.

Development History

The first HUBO was developed by mechanical engineering professor Oh Junho and his Ph.D. student team over the course of about 20 years. During much of this time, they worked to secure the necessary technologies, including design and manufacturing, without relying on experts. Their amateur approach resulted in a very low development cost of about $500,000 compared to the $300 million that Honda had spent on ASIMO at the time when KHR-3 was completed.

KHR-0 was built in 2001 for the purpose of investigating the specifications of the actuators (device that receives electric signal and performs mechanical action), such as power, torque, and speed. Unlike its descendants, KHR-0 is not a humanoid robot because it only consists of two legs and lacks the entire upper body, which was introduced in KHR-1.