Korean Robot Can Walk, Talk
- HUBO, comparable to Japan's ASIMO

Researchers at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) has unveiled HUBO, a Korean version of ASIMO, the world's most advanced robot made by Japan.
A research team, headed by Prof. Oh Jun-ho, of the Mechanics Department at KAIST, released HUBO, a bi-pedal humanoid robot, who can walk like human beings, for the first time in Korea. The two-legged walking robot placed on public view on Dec. 22 following a three-year research. HUBO is an improved version of the walking robot, called KHR-2 that was unveiled last year, so it can move back and forward and turn around like human beings do, Prof. Oh said.
HUBO is 125 cm high and weighs 55 kg. The robot is characterized by voice recognition, allowing interactive communication. If a person says hello, HUBO can reply the greeting, saying Hello, by realizing voice recognition.
But one of the HUBOOs unique features is to control its own power corresponding to his partner's grip when shaking hands. It is because each of its five fingers has its own motor, which can move separately and freely. It can stand on one foot while keeping its balance by moving its two arms.
One thing HUBO cannot do like ASIMO is to ascend or descend stairs. Japan has upgraded the walking humanoid robot to a running robot.
Japan has spent about 300 billion won in creating ASIMO, a state-of-the-art humanoid robot in the world, for the past 15 years, but Hobo cost about 1 billion won just in three years. Given the narrowing technological gap between Japan and Korea, Korea is likely to join the ranking of advanced countries capable of producing advanced robots in the next few years, industry experts said.
Prof. Oh said, "HUBO demonstrates Korea's technology approaching to the world-class standards of humanoid robots, and focus will be on developing such functions as ascending, running and interactive reactions with human beings in a bid to make robots humanoid". nw