Hubo 2

A sleek silver robot with head like an astronauts helmet holds its arms out to the camera. Two fingers are outstretched on each hand, while the other three fingers are clenched.
Hubo is Korea's most advanced humanoid. Photo: KAIST

Hubo 2 is a full-size humanoid that can walk, run, dance, and grasp objects. It uses a straight-leg walking gait that's an improvement over most bipedal robots, which keep their knees bent to balance.

Creator

KAIST

Year
2009
Country
South Korea 🇰🇷
Categories
Features
Hubo creator introduces his new "son." Video: IEEE Spectrum

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Appearance

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Did you know?

Hubo 2 has 40 motors and can walk around for two hours straight without a break.

Side view of a sleek silver humanoid with a helmeted head, and thick black wires on its back.
The robot has a compact, lightweight design. Photo: KAIST
Rear view of a sleek silver humanoid with a helmeted head, and thick black wires on its back.
Hubo has more than 40 motors in its body. Photo: KAIST

History

Hubo is a humanoid robot series designed by Prof. Jun-Ho Oh at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) in Seoul, South Korea. Prof. Oh built the first Hubo in 2004. It was one of the first advanced full-body humanoid robots developed outside Japan. In 2010 he unveiled Hubo 2, a major upgrade on the original version. Prof. Oh is also known for building two other Hubo robots: Albert Hubo, which had a Hubo body and an Albert Einstein animatronic head developed by Hanson Robotics, and DRC-Hubo, a "transformer" robot that won the DARPA Robotics Challenge.

Full front view of a sleek, silver humanoid with a helmeted head.
The robot has an aluminum internal frame and plastic covers. Photo: KAIST
The robot stands on a baseball field wearing a Phillies cap and parts of a uniform.
Hubo appears at a Philadelphia Phillies game in 2012. Photo: Hunter Martin/Getty Images

Specs

Overview

Modular, lightweight design. High performance actuation system optimized for dynamic tasks.

Status

Inactive

Year

2009

Website
Height
125 cm
Weight
45 kg
Speed
1.5 km/h (walking); 3.6 km/h (running)
Sensors

Camera, three-axis force-torque sensor, two-axis inertial sensor, two-axis tilt sensor.

Actuators

44 brushless DC motors (19 200-W 48-V motors, six 100-W 48-V motors, nine 11-W 48-V motors, and 10 0.75-W 12-V motors).

Degrees of Freedom (DoF)
40 (Neck: 3 DoF; Arm: 7 DoF x 2; Hand: 5 DoF x 2; Torso: 1 DoF; Leg: 6 DoF x 2)
Materials

Hard plastic exterior, aluminum skeleton.

Compute

Two PC/104 embedded computers with solid state drives

Software

Windows XP OS with RTX (Real-Time Extension) for Windows.

Power

48-V lithium-polymer battery

Cost
$400,000