Google became the first private company to purchase Hubo, the first humanoid robot created by KAIST. Department of Mechanical Engineering’s Professor Jun Ho Oh, the “father” of Hubo, said, “Google has requested for two Hubo 2 robots and we sent them the quotation.” Earlier this month, Google had shown keen interest in Hubo 2 during the “K-Tech Silicon Valley” hosted by Ministry of Knowledge Economy in Silicon Valley.

KAIST plans to sell Hubo 2 at approximately 400,000 U.S. dollars before next March. The background for Google’s purchase of Hubo is yet unknown. “We only discussed the basic matters in the interest of business. I can only guess the details behind the deal.”

Up till now, Hubo 2 has been bought by a total of three research institutes to further their research in robotics. Last year, Institute for Infocomm Research, a member of the Agency for Science, Technology, and Research in Singapore, and the Robotics and Mechatronics Lab at Drexel University in the U.S. bought two units and seven units, respectively. This year, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China bought one unit.

Experts are giving various opinions on the reason behind Google’s purchase. Opinions range from Google developing a robot of their own to improving their “Self-Driving Car” operating system (OS). The first suggestion is based on rumors that Google is planning to hire experts in the field of robotics and currently have a robotics research team comprised of 20 to 30 people. Another associate of the robots industry said, “Google is starting the development of robots with the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. Korea and Japan are far more advanced in the area of humanoid technology and thus it is only natural for Google to be interested.” The latter opinion is based on the analysis that Google wants to dominate the robot and car OS markets. Because Hubo’s OS is Windows-based, it is compatible with Google’s ROS for testing. Vice President Chung Gon Go said, “If cars and robots become “smart,” there will be competition for who will dominate the OS.”