A Conversation with Robotis President Byoung-Soo Kim

[Matt]

An interesting interview for Robotis Fans:

"In this interview with Robotics Trends president Dan Kara, Robotis president Byoung-Soo Kim describes his company's products and philosophy, along with the plans Robotis has for international markets and the industry as a whole."

Read the article over at Robotics Trends:
http://www.roboticstrends.com/displayarticle764.html

[Dave]

We've been trying to tell people this for years. Maybe we're on to something?

Let me explain about the term ‘Robot Platform’ briefly. We develop products that allow people to build a variety of robots. Some people think of the robot platform market as a small market, but we think differently. In many ways robots are similar PCs. The most important thing robots and PCs have in common is the concept of an ‘All-Round Device’ which is capable of doing everything. A necessary element in this kind of all-round device is the ‘Contents’. In PCs, platforms such as busses, compilers and operating systems, allowed the contents – namely software programs - to be developed and executed in a consistent fashion. Likewise, in robots, after a standard platform which will play the role of a PC platform is supplied, it will become much easier to develop robot contents… the software which will actuate the robot.

[Dave]

Another interesting point, for those who don't want to read the whole article:


Humanoid robots, which are hardware-oriented, are popular in Korea and Japan. On the other hand, the US seems concentrating more on robot intelligence. I think these are mutual complementary elements.