[Innovate Korea] Future of robots depends on AI: Rainbow Robotics founder

DAEJEON -- Oh Jun-ho, founder of Rainbow Robotics and a former mechanical engineering professor at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, underscored the future of robots lies in artificial intelligence technology.

“Robots are ready to do anything, but on their own, they can’t do anything. Bringing movement to them requires human touch like programming, but in the future, AI will be able to take on that role,” he said in his speech at Innovate Korea 2024, held at the Lyu Keun-chul Sports Complex in Daejeon on Wednesday.

Before his speech, he appeared on the stage with his quadruped walking robot and grabbed the attention of the some 3,000 participants. He then explained the current state of humanoid robots and the future of relevant technologies as he showcased some of the company’s products, such as the bimanual mobile manipulator and humanoid robot.

“Robots can be broadly divided into two components: the moving hardware and the software that controls it. The hardware has largely been developed, but driving it remains a challenge. Ultimately, AI will need to handle this operation. I believe this battle will be crucial in the future."

Although humanoid robots cannot fully replace workers at the moment, there is a lot we can do at this stage, the company founder said. He is gearing up to unveil a trial product of a new electric bipedal walking robot as early as the end of this year.

Rainbow Robotics, founded by a research team at KAIST Humanoid Robot Research Center in 2011, is one of a handful of robot companies making bipedal human-like robots. Samsung Electronics owns a 14.99-percent stake in the company as its second-largest shareholder.