Humanoid & robot atlas
DRC-HUBO
Photo: Office of Naval Research from Arlington, United States, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
RetiredSucceeded by Pibot South Korea

KAIST (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology) · research humanoid

DRC-HUBO

A version of KAIST's HUBO humanoid redesigned for disaster response: it could kneel and roll on wheels at its knees for faster, more stable travel, then stand to use tools and climb stairs.

Price
—Not published
Height
—Not published
Weight
—Not published
Payload
—Not published
Speed
—Not published
Battery
—Not published
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Why it matters

Won the 2015 DARPA Robotics Challenge Finals and its $2 million prize, completing all eight tasks in 44:28.

Real-world use

No customers or deployments reported yet.

Timeline

First shown
2015-06-05
Released
Not yet
DARPA Robotics Challenge Finals, Pomona, California (5-6 June 2015; won on day two)

Maker

KAIST (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology)University lab · Daejeon, South Korea

Agency for Defense Development (5.7 billion won for Pibot)

Public attention

A historic robot: no longer sold or in use, so it is not ranked against current humanoids.

  • No Wikipedia article of its own yet
  • 2 news stories from reputable press listed on this page

Measures how much people read and write about a robot, not how good it is. Measured 2026-10-14; same method for every robot. How it is measured

What’s inside

The parts the company has talked about publicly.

Movement
Walks on legs
Actuators & motors
Maxon EC-Powermax 30 and RE-Max 29 motors.
Hands
Gripper hands; each arm-and-hand assembly has 8 DoF.
Sensors & vision
Rainbow Robotics force/torque sensors at the end of each limb, ADIS-16480 IMU, KVH-1750 fibre-optic gyro, two optical-flow sensors on the shins, and a head camera with a Hokuyo 2D lidar.
Compute
Intel NUC PC for head sensing and motion.
Battery & power
Two lithium batteries, about 4 hours of operation.
Materials & build
Aluminium.
AI & software
Linux with PODO, a motion-control framework developed at KAIST.
Other details
Wheels at the knees let it kneel and roll for speed and stability, then stand to walk; 32 DoF and 80 kg.

Named suppliers:IntelmaxonHokuyo

Lineage

Every KAIST (Team KAIST) with Rainbow Robotics humanoid in order.

  1. No public photo yetWe only show photos we're allowed to useKHR-22004Retired
  2. HUBO (KHR-3)HUBO (KHR-3)2004Retired
  3. Albert HUBOAlbert HUBO2005Discontinued
  4. HUBO 2 (KHR-4)HUBO 2 (KHR-4)2008Discontinued
  5. DRC-HUBODRC-HUBO2015Retired
  6. PibotPibot2023Prototype

KAIST (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology) also makes 1 machine. See every KAIST (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology) robot

Watch DRC-HUBO

Video: HuboLab KAIST on YouTube. Plays from youtube-nocookie.com when you press play.

Made, sold and where

Unit counts are usually company figures; analysts often disagree.

Price
Not published
How to get one
No official buying page found
Sold or delivered
Not sold as DRC-HUBO
Where it is sold or used
Competed in the United States (Pomona, California)

News

The latest 2, newest first. Summaries are ours; tap through for the original.

  1. Wins the DARPA Robotics Challenge Finals

    Team KAIST finished all eight tasks in 44:28 to take the $2 million first prize.

    Christian Science Monitor
  2. KAIST admitted to DRC Finals as self-funded team

    After SCHAFT left the funded track, DARPA admitted KAIST, which had scored 8 points at the 2013 Trials.

    Defense One

Side by side with its peers

Picked by the same rules for every humanoid: another maker’s robot that moves the same way, is at the same stage and does at least one of the same main jobs, first shown within two years. Closer size and price rank higher. How we choose

Full comparison
MeasureDRC-HUBODRC-HUBOKAIST (Team KAIST) with Rainbow RoboticsSurena IIISurena IIIUniversity of Tehran, Center for Advanced Systems and Technologies (CAST)Same job: research · Both walk · Both past robotsESCHERESCHERVirginia Tech TREC Lab (Team VALOR)Same job: research · Both walk · Both past robotsAtlas (next generation)Atlas (next generation)Boston DynamicsSame job: research · Both walk · Both past robots
First shown2015-06-052015-112015-062016-02-23
StatusRetiredRetiredRetiredRetired
Height—190 cm—175 cm
Weight—98 kg—82 kg
Joints—31——
Speed————
Payload————
Battery————
Price————

Sources

Figures come from public sources. Every link below backs something on this page.

Christian Science Monitor South Korean team wins $2 million to design robots for humanitarian aid Open Electronics (DARPA release) Robots from Republic of Korea and United States take home $3.5 million in prizes Defense One Google opts out of Robotics Challenge funding; DARPA expands the field Logo: KAIST, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

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