Kibo

A cartoonish bipedal robot with the appearance of a female astronaut, in a white and black shell.
Kibo uses its camera eyes to recognize people and objects. Photo: KIST

Kibo is a humanoid robot with an expressive, cartoonish face. It navigates on its own, understands spoken commands, and likes to give hugs with every one of its 43 degrees of freedom.

Creator

Korea Institute of Science & Technology (KIST)

Year
2011
Country
South Korea 🇰🇷
Categories
Features
Kibo unveiled at Robot World 2011 in South Korea. Video: PlasticPals

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Appearance

Neutral

Did you know?

To navigate, Kibo uses a special camera that looks for identifiable patterns on the ceiling above it.

Side view of Kibo shows it's backpack, legs, arms, and face behind a clear cover.
Kibo's legs and arms have six axes of motion each. Photo: KIST
Rear view of the robot shows its power backpack.
The robot can operate for 30 minutes. Photo: KIST

Specs

Overview

Capable of showing a variety of facial expressions and lip-syncing tunes. Able to recognize faces and objects.

Status

Ongoing

Year

2011

Website
Width
48 cm
Height
120 cm
Length
300 cm
Weight
42 kg
Speed
0.54 km/h
Sensors

Stereo cameras, ultrasonic sensors, six-axis force-torque sensors in the feet, three-axis inertial sensor, Microsoft Kinect, microphones.

Actuators

Faulhaber DC motors, harmonic drive, and belt pulley.

Degrees of Freedom (DoF)
44 (Head and Face: 17 DoF; Arms: 6 DoF x 2; Hands: 1 DoF x 2; Waist: 1 DoF; Legs: 6 DoF x 2)
Compute

Intel Core2 embedded PC

Software

Linux OS with RTAI

Power

Battery, 30 minutes of operation

Cost
$270,000 (only for hardware; $9 million for R&D)