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A humanoid robot carried the Olympic torch in South Korea
One of the traditions of the Olympics is the torch relay, in which people carry the flame from Olympia, Greece to the location of the Games. In 2018, the Olympic Games will be held in Pyeongchang, South Korea, and the torch relay is currently underway. Earlier this week, the HUBO, the humanoid robot, carried the flame for part of its journey.
HUBO 2 has articulated hands, can walk 2 km on a charge: yours for $400k
HUBO has come so far from mastering the basics of mobility. The latest from KAIST is HUBO 2, a robot with flexible limbs that allow it to bend down and even do push-ups. The HUBO 2's hands are another big improvement, now allowing the humanoid to open car doors, operate a gear shift and hold up to 7 kg. KAIST used "individually actuated" fingers that adapt to the shape of whatever HUBO 2 is holding, a la Honda's new ASIMO. The robot can walk 2 km on a charge, and it looks like it's a little less of a slow poke now, too: KAIST increased its running speed to 4 kph from 3 kph. Check out the source link and video below to see the HUBO 2 in action -- if you're impressed, it can be yours for a cool $400,000.
KAIST's HUBO shows off some newfound dexterity, hides emotions behind ill-fitting motorcycle helmet
Sometimes when we see the seemingly slow advance of Honda's ASIMO, the inherent limitations of WowWee toys, or the purposefully limited one-off research projects of universities, we start to give up hope of being super best pals with a humanoid robot this century; hope of partaking in whimsical 80s movie hijinks, hand-in-metal-hand. This little video of the Korean Institute of Advanced Science and Technology's recent advances on its HUBO project therefore serves as a bit of a "hope refresher," allowing us to once again re-imagine those aforementioned scenes of whimsy with a metallic bot that can handle a sword and walk at an almost-useful pace, while inexplicably wearing a smallish, visored helmet. Sure, there's a long way to go, but we'd just like to say that when the robot apocalypse doesn't happen and we realize how much we really have in common with these machines we've built to look like us, that somewhere in late 2009 this video helped us keep on believing.
Mahru the robot dances to mask its emotional insecurities
We've enjoyed watching KIST's Hubo do crazy things like wear the face of Albert Einstein and ride a Segway, but we haven't given as much attention to its brother Mahru. Feeling left out, the biped learned to dance with its upper body whilst walking around -- an impressive feat, considering it wasn't all that long ago that scientists first managed to get these things to take five steps without falling flat on their faces. Mahru also releases scents to express its artificial emotions, so you should be able to smell something fishy when it achieves sentience and begins angrily plotting to destroy its creators. Take a gander at a South Korean TV news report after the break.
Lazy Hubo gets a Segway
What's the world coming to? It's bad enough that everyone moves from here to there in their cars, motorcycles, personal helicopters, and human transportation devices (except for us -- we sit in front of the computer for 15 hours a day), but now it seems that the sedentary lifestyle is so prevalent, even robots are demanding their own set of wheels. You may remember Professor Oh Jun-ho's Asimo-like humanoid bot Hubo (probably better known when he sports the head of Einstein and transforms into Albert Hubo); well now Hubo has apparently gotten tired of walking around all the time, and has tasked the professor with acquiring a Segway for him to zip around on. At this point Hubo is unable to board the Segway without some help (geez, how lazy can you get?), but a software upgrade will supposedly provide him with the necessary motivation. See, you thought that our future robotic overlords would be shuffling around slowly while they round us up to toil in the silicon mines; in fact, they'll be corralling all humans at several miles-per-hour from the comfort of their Kamen-built scooters.
