Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST)

KAIST, the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology in Daejeon, has operated since 1971. For humanoid robotics, however, the Humanoid Robot Research Center led by Professor Jun-Ho Oh, the creator of the HUBO series, matters more than the university itself. The first generations, KHR-3 HUBO and Albert HUBO, appeared in 2005. In 2008 and 2009 HUBO 2, also known as Jaemi HUBO, was shown, and in January 2011 came HUBO 2 Plus, the last publicly documented generation of the line. The year 2011 also brought a commercial turn: in February the company Rainbow Robotics split off from the parent centre, took over the technology and began developing it as a business. Today it is one of the recognisable Korean robot makers, in which Samsung has taken a stake. Data on the team's budget, funding and number of researchers is not public, so we do not try to estimate it. The history of KAIST shows that many of today's humanoid companies grew out of laboratories rather than start-up garages, as “How Does a Humanoid Robot Work” reminds us. We discuss HUBO 2 Plus itself below as the only model of this line in the catalogue.

In the catalogue KAIST has one model: HUBO 2 Plus. It stands 130 cm tall, weighs 43 kg and walks autonomously on two legs, running for about 2.17 hours on one charge, a figure worth noting for a robot from 2011. The source gives no control system for this generation, so we do not assign one. It is a research platform, not a consumer product: according to available information Rainbow Robotics built a small series of 15 units by 2012, of which 11 went to research teams in the United States, Japan, Singapore and China, while 4 stayed in Korea. The continuation of the line can be found at the successor company, in the catalogue under Rainbow Robotics HUBO-2 and the newer Rainbow Robotics RB-Y1. The concept of degrees of freedom, key when judging such robots, is explained in “Degrees of Freedom (DOF) in Humanoid Robots”. The whole belongs to the category “Humanoid robots”, and the natural environment for such designs is the laboratory. No price is given, because the robot was never offered in regular sales. The research centre also does not disclose the number of degrees of freedom in the materials on which we based this description.

KAIST does not compete in the market because it sells nothing as a product. Its position is scientific and historical: Oh's team was among the pioneers of two-legged humanoids in Asia, and its platform served as the technological base of the company Rainbow Robotics, described in Rainbow Robotics. Earlier generations of the line are said to have taken part in the American DARPA Robotics Challenge, but our sources contain no results, so we do not judge them. If we look for counterparts from other institutions, the catalogue includes, among others, iCub from the Italian institute, TORO from the German aerospace centre and LOLA from the Munich technical university. Each serves research, not sales. Fifteen years after HUBO 2 Plus, commercial humanoids such as Kawasaki Kaleido 9 are 190 cm tall and carry 18 kg, which measures the distance well. A broader view of the market is given in “Humanoid Robot Market Forecasts”.

HUBO 2 Plus is not available in Poland, and it has no distributor or official representative here. We also found no documented deployments of this robot at Polish universities. If a Polish research team wanted to work on a platform from this family, it would have to contact the Korean maker directly. For universities seeking a humanoid for teaching, newer models that are actually sold are more practical today, as described in “Educational Robots for Schools and Universities”. Questions about price and local service do not apply here, because the product never entered the commercial offer. If that changes, we will update this passage.

KAIST is a curiosity for people who want to understand where today's humanoids came from, not a purchasing proposition. The strong side is its historical importance and the direct link to Rainbow Robotics. The weak side is the lack of a price, no sales and technical data more than ten years old. This entry is best read together with the descriptions of newer robots, not instead of them. For practical purchasing decisions it is better to turn to models that can be ordered today.