by David Geer
Contact the author at geercom@windstream.net
Discuss this article in the SERVO Magazine forums at http://forum.servomagazine.com
Collaborating
With HUBO
Dr. Youngmoo Kim and Dr. Paul Oh of
Drexel University are working with
HUBO robot platforms from the Korea
Advanced Institute of Science and
Technology (KAIST) to help advance the
development of humanoid robotics. By
sharing seven standardized HUBO
robots among Drexel University, MIT,
Carnegie-Mellon, Virginia Tech, the
University of Southern California, Ohio
State, Purdue, and Penn State, each
school is able to work on and improve
differing types of algorithms,
programming, behaviors, and
capabilities on its robot while ensuring
that progress at one school translates to
the robots at the other schools. A grant
from the NSF made it all possible.
At Drexel, Dr. Kim (the Director of the
Music and Entertainment Technology Lab) is working on musical development
on the HUBO platform which we’ll take a look at later in this article.
The HUBO Platform
10 SERVO 10.2012
The first HUBO was part of a previous project that
Dr. Oh kicked off. It was a multi-million dollar project to
bring HUBO from KAIST to Drexel, and to trade students
between KAIST and Drexel to share knowledge and training
on HUBO.
The HUBO robot platform is a four foot, three inch tall,
fully actuated humanoid robot with similar joint movement
to that of humans. HUBO’s legs, arms, hands, fingers, and
thumbs work about the same as human’s do, as well. HUBO
and HUBO 2 are among the latest robots in the HUBO
series, showcasing a slighter design consisting of a
polycarbonate frame and an aluminum endoskeleton. The
new HUBO is taller and lighter. For this version, KAIST made
improvements in the mechatronics for greater reliability.
