Even in the world of robotics, AI was an unavoidable hot topic.
On the 12th episode of EBS' Hobby Is a Science Trip, which aired on the 12th, the new expedition leader Jang Wooyoung, travel creator Wonji, and science communicator Hangseong headed to LA, the mecca of robotics.
The expedition team boarded an autonomous driving unmanned taxi to meet roboticist Dennis Hong and followed a route guided by an autonomous robot toward the UCLA Romela Research Laboratory, where a humanoid greeted them. There, they saw various forms of robots and, through many questions and answers, took one step closer to the world of robotics.
What drew special attention to the expedition was physical AI. Dennis Hong said he is using AI, which has become familiar in our daily lives, in robotics while simultaneously researching it. He then mentioned physical AI, the biggest topic in robotics.
AI operates by learning from collected data, but the expedition expressed doubt over the fact that there is no data necessary for a robot to walk. The crux of physical AI is that because there is no data, the question is where to obtain it. For example, Ballu, the balloon robot created by Dennis Hong, is sensitive to external conditions and difficult to model mathematically, so it moved all day to generate its own data and learned from that data to become the Ballu it is today, prompting the expedition's admiration.
Also, a globally famous car company collects data while driving with the driver's consent to improve autonomous driving performance, making clear how central data is to leveraging AI.
Above all, Dennis Hong said with firm conviction that whether a robot is physical and mathematical or data-driven AI, the robots he envisions will be technologies that make people happy. In that respect, he said Korea has solid, skilled talent, world-class precision manufacturing technology, and, based on that technology, it is possible to acquire data and develop automated robots from the acquired data, making the outlook for robotics bright.
Thus, AI has branched into various fields and exerts immense influence, leaving the open question of whether a future in which humanoid robots based on physical AI become commonplace and humans coexist with robots will come, but the tour finished successfully, capturing both usefulness and fun.
EBS' Hobby Is a Science Trip airs every Monday at 10:50 p.m. and is also available on OTT channels such as Watcha and Wave.
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