ⓒ Rainbow Robotics

The company we’re going to introduce today is Rainbow Robotics, the company that developed Korea’s first humanoid robot, HUBO. Here’s the company’s CEO, Lee Jungho이정호. 

Our company develops and sells a biped humanoid robot called HUBO. The company was founded as a spin-off of the Humanoid Robot Research Center at the Korea Advanced Institution of Science and Technology (KAIST). As the maker of the country’s first biped humanoid robot, we are currently using the technology to develop robot platforms that can be applied in various fields. 

From the perspective of a robotics engineer, the biped humanoid platform is the ultimate combination of extant robotics technology. We were the first in the country to start developing it around 1999, and at present, I believe we are also the only company in the country to be researching the field full-time. 

In 2000, Japanese company Honda surprised the world when it introduced its biped humanoid robot ASIMO, as it was considered impossible to make such a robot with the technology of the time. But the feat that took the company 15 years and 300-billion won, or 265 million USD to achieve was eventually accomplished outside of Japan as well. The Humanoid Robot Research Center at KAIST led by Professor Oh Junho오준호 began developing a humanoid robot, and by 2004, they were able to create their own biped humanoid using original technology. At the time of its introduction, HUBO was 130cm tall and weighed 55kg. With strides measuring 35cm, it could take 65 steps per minute, or walk at a speed of 1.25km/h. 

Since then, the robot’s performance was continuously improved, and in 2011, Prof. Oh Junho and Dr. Lee Jungho founded the venture business Rainbow Robotics to commercialize HUBO. The company focused mostly on developing humanoid platforms ever since, and it was at the center of global robotics attention in 2015, when HUBO won first place at the DARPA Robotics Challenge, a prize competition of robotic technology for disaster-response operations, held in the United States. 

The competition consisted of eight different tasks. The robot has to get on a vehicle and drive on its own, by stepping on the accelerator, controlling the wheel and hitting the breaks. After dismounting, the robot must open a door to enter a building, close a valve, and use a drill-like tool to dismantle a wall. There are also missions and obstacles introduced on site, in addition to walking on uneven grounds and climbing up staircases. At the competition, only robots created by three teams were able to complete all the tasks – us, Florida Institute for Human & Machine Cognition (IHMC), a quasi-public institution, and a team from Carnegie Mellon University. We won first place because out of the three, our robot was the fastest completing all tasks.  

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DAPRA, is an agency under the US Department of Defense. In 2013, DARPA launched the competition, in which robots were given a mission to enter a hypothetical nuclear disaster site instead of humans, to close the valve of a leaking cooling water pipe. The mission was designed with an aim to overcome the limitations of robotics technologies that were revealed in the aftermaths of the 2011 Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster. Eight tasks, which included surmounting obstacles, stair climbing and hole drilling, were designed to encourage the development of robots that can rescue humans at disaster sites. Competition was fierce. The world’s top twenty-four teams of robotics engineers were there representing NASA, global robotics firm IHMC Robotics, Japan’s leading robotics research institute the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), as well as the world’s top developer of unmanned vehicle control, Carnegie Mellon University (CMU). Rainbow Robotics rose above them all during the 3-year long competition, winning first place with their robot designed with entirely proprietary technology. The robot was able to complete the 8-step course in 44 minutes and 28 seconds.

ⓒ Rainbow Robotics

It’s very closely linked to our company’s philosophy. We hate adopting exant parts or resources from other parts of the world and changing them a little bit for commercialization. So we try to develop everything that goes into our robots on our own. When we first introduced HUBO, the only two technologies that were not of our own making were the decelerator and the actuator. But we have since developed our own technologies for these as well, which I believe will give us more of a competitive edge. So now, from the smallest parts to large algorithms, we produce almost everything that goes into our robots. 

The HUBO model that competed in the DARPA Robotics Challenge is 170cm tall, weighs 70kg, and its strides are 40cm long. It can change shape, like a Transformer, and move around on wheels. With superb awareness of its surroundings, it is capable of climbing over obstacles and conducting detailed operations such as drilling holes. To develop such a robot, Rainbow Robotics made constant technological advancements by combing through innumerable blueprints, even developing a whole new operational system needed for robotics controls. Today, HUBO is exported all around the world. 

In Korea, HUBO is in use in only two places – Seoul National University and the National Science Museum. Most of our buyers are from overseas, including the United States and China. Many American universities, including Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Georgia Tech and Ohio University, as well as numerous top American companies such as Google are using our products. In addition, US government facilities such as the American Naval Research Laboratory are using our robots as well. 

HUBO is currently being studied at top global research facilities, government facilities and private companies like Google. Earlier this year, HUBO also carried the Olympic torch for the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics. The technological prowess that created Korea’s leading humanoid HUBO is now being utilized to develop more diverse robots. 

At present, there are many organizations within Korea that are making collaborative robots. But most of them still import the key technology or parts from abroad. The collaborative robots we’re developing is made with 100% original technology. Secondly, we’re also making medical robots. We’re working with the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety to develop robots that can be used at dermatological clinics to remove moles, tattoos, leukoplakia, or cure jaundice. We’re also making service robots, which you may be able to see at several different places by the first half of next year. I hope Rainbow Robotics will become a robotics company that can represent Korea to the world – one that will be recognized globally for its original technology. 

Rainbow Robotics is leading the evolution of robotics technology by developing various robots after HUBO, such as industrial collaborative robots that can work together with humans in assembly lines, medical robots that are used in medical sciences, and service robots that not only make coffee but create latte art. Through its endless pursuits, the company is offering the world’s robotics industry a vision for the future.