Last week, Professor Oh Jun-Ho was sacred “Man of the Year 2004” at the Institute of Advanced Sciences and Technologies of Korea (Korea Advanced Institute of Science & Technology, KAIST), including its work on humanoid robot. He met in recent days to an interview published on Oh My News, in which he explained the specific characteristics and challenges of humanoid robot Hubo. Hubo is a direct competitor Asimo, the robot developed by Japanese Honda: a comparable size (120 cm), it may evolve over two legs, shake hands or carry out specific tasks. One of its main specificities is to have hands with each of the fingers are independent. But the father of the robot can boast especially the speed with which it was developed (two years) and the related budget: “In fact, it may take more than $ 500 000 were invested in this research,” considers Jun-Ho Oh, and although the total budget is usually estimated at one million dollars, it is far from the $ 300 million spent on a Honda Asimo over the past 10 years. “I do not think Hubo is higher than Asimo. This is incredible and deserves our respect. Continue reading →