Humanoid & robot atlas
HUBO (KHR-3)
Photo: KAIST Hubo Lab (Jun-Ho Oh) (official image), from file.newswire.co.kr. Image policy
RetiredSucceeded by Albert HUBO South Korea

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

HUBO

KHR-3

KAIST's third humanoid, about ASIMO's size, built in 2004 and released in January 2005 after the smaller KHR-1 (2002-03) and KHR-2 (2004). It walked at about 1.25 km/h and could run for about an hour.

Price
—Not published
Height
125 cmTaller than 17%
Weight
55 kgHeavier than 38%
Payload
—Not published
Speed
1.2 km/hFaster than 7%
Battery
1 hRuns longer than 3%
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Why it matters

South Korea's first full-size self-contained walking humanoid, presented as a rival to ASIMO.

Real-world use

No customers or deployments reported yet.

Timeline

First shown
2004-12
Released
Not yet
KAIST HUBO (KHR-3), documented by Park et al. (2005).

Maker

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

Agency for Defense Development (5.7 billion won for Pibot)

How it stacks up

Against other humanoids that publish the figure. Pick a measure.

  1. JOHNNIETechnical University of Munich (Institute of Applied Mechanics) · 2003180 cm
  2. REEM-APAL Robotics · 2005140 cm
  3. Albert HUBOKAIST Hubo Lab and Hanson Robotics · 2005137 cm
  4. HUBO (KHR-3)KAIST Hubo Lab (Jun-Ho Oh) · 2004125 cm
  5. KHR-2KAIST Hubo Lab (Jun-Ho Oh) · 2004120 cm
  6. Toyota Partner Robot (walking type)Toyota Motor Corporation · 2004120 cm
  7. wakamaruMitsubishi Heavy Industries · 2003100 cm
  8. WE-4RIIWaseda University (Atsuo Takanishi lab) · 200497 cm

HUBO (KHR-3) is taller than 17% of the 305 other humanoids that publish a height. Bars show the 7 closest in date.

Height 125 cm 34 cm213 cm #250 of 306 · taller than 17%

Not published by the maker: payload, joints, price.

Public attention

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

  • 323 views of its Wikipedia article in the last 90 days (HUBO)
  • 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.

Hands
dexterous
Movement
Walks on legs
Sensors & vision
Vision with two independently operating eyes; voice recognition and speech synthesis (New Atlas).
Compute
On-board intelligence supplemented by a wireless link to an external server (New Atlas).
Other details
41 DoF, 125 cm and 55 kg (Park et al., 2005).

Lineage

Every KAIST Hubo Lab (Jun-Ho Oh) 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 HUBO (KHR-3)

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
Built
Research prototype; unit count not published
Where it is sold or used
South Korea

News

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

  1. HUBO released by KAIST

    Wikipedia dates KHR-3 HUBO's release to 6 January 2005.

    Wikipedia
  2. KHR-3 renamed HUBO and shown to Korean press

    New Atlas reported the robot was first shown to Korean media in December 2004.

    New Atlas

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
MeasureHUBO (KHR-3)HUBO (KHR-3)KAIST Hubo Lab (Jun-Ho Oh)REEM-AREEM-APAL RoboticsSame job: research · Both walk · Both past robots · Similar sizeNo public photo yetWe only show photos we're allowed to useGuRooUniversity of Queensland Mobile Robotics LaboratorySame job: research · Both walk · Both past robots · Similar sizeNo public photo yetWe only show photos we're allowed to useCB2 (Child-robot with Biomimetic Body)Osaka UniversitySame job: research · Both walk · Both past robots · Similar size
First shown2004-12200520022006
StatusRetiredRetiredRetiredRetired
Height125 cm140 cm120 cm130 cm
Weight55 kg49 kg—33 kg
Joints—3023—
Speed1.2 km/h1.5 km/h——
Payload—2 kg——
Battery1 h1.5 h——
Price————

Sources

Figures come from press coverage. Every link below backs something on this page.

KAIST / IEEE Mechanical Design of Humanoid Robot Platform KHR-3 (KAIST Humanoid Robot - 3: HUBO) New Atlas Korea shows its robotics prowess with a rival for ASIMO Logo: KAIST, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

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