Humanoid Robot 'Hubo' Transforms into Broadcast News Anchor

[Asia Economy Reporter Junho Hwang] For the first time in domestic broadcasting history, a robot anchor appeared and delivered the news. The Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) announced on the 15th that HUBO, the first humanoid robot in Korea developed by Professor Junho Oh's mechanical engineering research team, appeared as the 8 PM news anchor on Daejeon Broadcasting (TJB).

HUBO appeared as the 8 PM news anchor on the 14th, marking the 25th anniversary of TJB Daejeon Broadcasting, a private broadcaster serving the Daejeon, Sejong, and Chungcheong regions. HUBO conversed with announcer Hyunji Kim and then independently delivered two reports.

The robot that appeared as the anchor that day was the HUBO2 model developed by Professor Junho Oh's research team in 2009. HUBO introduced the activities of barista robots, serving robots, surgical robots, and the current status of domestic robot research, which are becoming established in everyday life as society shifts to an untact (non-face-to-face) environment due to COVID-19.

During the news broadcast, HUBO demonstrated simple movements. When the research team remotely controlled HUBO behind the camera, the HUBO in the studio mimicked the movements exactly.

HUBO is Korea's first humanoid robot developed in 2004 by Professor Junho Oh's research team at KAIST. In June 2015, it won first place at the disaster response robot competition hosted by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) under the U.S. Department of Defense in Pomona, California, receiving a prize of 2 million dollars (approximately 2.2 billion won).