Korea’s humanoid ‘Hubo’ from KAIST wins top prize at U.S. disaster Olympic

Korea’s humanoid ‘Hubo’ from KAIST wins top prize at U.S. disaster Olympic. June. 08, 2015 07:22. enhanced@donga.com.

Korea’s first humanoid "Hubo," whose first model was developed in 2004, has been reborn as the world’s best disaster response robot after 11-year efforts to improve performance. KAIST’s Humanoid Robot Research Center has won the grand prize at the DARPA Robotics Challenge (DRC) held at "Fairplex," an exhibition center in Pomona City, California on Friday and Saturday. DRC is a competition of disaster response robots that is hosted by Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) under the U.S. Department of Defense. The event is dubbed "Robots Olympics" since it brings together the world’s best robotics development teams that are armed with highly advanced robots and robotics control technology.

Team KAIST, led by its Humanoid Robot Research Center at the event, completed all of the eight-step tasks (possible score of 8 points) in 44 minutes and 28 seconds in the final round on Saturday, beating over robots from robotics powerhouses including the U.S., Japan and Germany, winning 2 million U.S. dollars in prize money.

DRC is a competition that was instated with the aim of deploying robots in lieu of humans under extreme conditions after the nuclear power plant disaster in Fukushima, Japan. Hubo immaculately completed various tasks, including driving a car on its own, opening a door to a gymnasium, turning a coolant valve, and drilling a hole in a wall.

“We conducted exercise more than 100 times in Korea, and had onsite training sessions in the U.S. for three weeks,” said Oh Joon-ho, chief of the KAIST Humanoid Robot Research Center and professor of mechanical engineering. “Going forward, we will develop robots that are applicable to real world, including development of more advanced disaster response robots.”