Hubo2 Robots Invade Drexel University

Thanks to part of a $6 million grant from the National Science Foundation, American universities have purchased six HUBO 2 Plus robots from South Korea’s Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST).  Drexel University’s Autonomous Systems Lab, led by Dr. Paul Oh (related to HUBO’s creator Dr. Jun Ho Oh) was instrumental in sealing the deal.

“Humanoids provide an exciting and practical context to both motivate and train American students,” Oh said. “One can argue that humanoids are the epitome of what one perceives to be a robot. As such, they are an attractive area for engineering students to work on. Students quickly learn that Asia is the world-leader in humanoid design. Thus to become humanoid designers, students recognize that working alongside robot engineers in Asia is important.”

 ”The KAIST HUBO served as an effective platform to train students in both complex systems engineering and working in international design teams. The net effect is that humanoids have been an effective medium to make today’s American engineer more effective in a globalized work environment.”

Comparable in size and sophistication to Honda’s ASIMO but built at a fraction of the cost, HUBO 2 Plus is one of the world’s most advanced humanoid robots.  The Plus in its name comes from modifications made since HUBO 2′s creation in 2008, including an extra camera in its head.

For more than a decade universities in the United States have been lagging behind their Asian counterparts in the realm of humanoid robotics, but that’s about to change.  Each of the new robots will find permanent homes at Carnegie Mellon, MIT, Ohio State, Penn, Purdue, and Virginia Tech after students have been trained to work with them at Drexel University.  Another two have also been sold to universities in Singapore.

“To date, all adult-sized humanoids have been individual custom-made units, and advances made using one design do not necessarily translate to others,” said Dr. Youngmoon Kim, an associate professor and assistant dean of media technologies in the College of Engineering and the director of the Music and Entertainment Technology (MET) Lab.  By working with the same robotics platform the teams will be able to share their work to accelerate humanoid development, just as they have done with Willow Garage’s PR2 and DARwIn-OP.  In a clip below, the robot helps Dan Lofaro (whom Plastic Pals interviewed back in 2010) carry an object.



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