S. Korea’s robot technology rapidly catching up with developed nations

April 11, 2014 Leave a comment

S. Korea’s robot technology rapidly catching up with developed nations

Won Ho-sup

2014.03.27 17:51:14

South Korea jumped into research in robots about 30 years later than the US or Japan. Korea’s development of the first generation robots working in the manufacturing sector began as late as in 1990s. But the country’s robots, an achievement of many scientists, are evolving and rapidly catching up with those of developed countries. 

Korea’s progress in robots cannot be told without mentioning Oh Jun-ho, professor of mechanical engineering at KAIST. He led the development of the world’s second humanoid robot ‘Hubo’ in 2004 following Japan. Hubo was developed after three years of research costing one billion won ($933,080), whereas Japan’s Asimo took 15 years and cost 300 billion won. “We successfully made Hubo at a low research cost because many researchers worked together,” said professor Oh.
The researchers who made prominent contributions include Kim Jung-hoon, professor at Yonsei University who developed Hubo’s predecessor “KHR-1’; Kim Jung-yup, professor at Seoul National University of Science and Technology and leading expert in robots’ walking technology and; Park Il-woo, professor at Kwangwoon University who handled machine design. Hubo, which has further advanced to be able to walk, run and dance by twisting its body without tripping, and is priced at about 400 million won, but has been sold worldwide for research purpose.

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