A new video (above) out of South Korea features the field tests and interaction capabilities of KAIST Humanoid v0.7, developed at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST).
The impressive humanoid robot was developed at KAIST’s Dynamic Robot Control & Design Laboratory (DRCD) and deploys actuators and other technology that was developed in-house.
In the video below, you can watch the bipedal bot walk, jog, and jump in an incredibly human-like way. It also shoots a soccer ball toward a goal (disappointingly there’s no robot goalkeeper there to challenge it), and performs a perfect moonwalk along astroturf. And it was the moonwalk that created a bit of a buzz in the comments accompanying the video.
“Moonwalk was flawless,” wrote one, while another commented, “Okay all of this was impressive, but you convinced me with the moonwalk.”
In its robotics work, KAIST deploys Physical AI, a form of AI technology that enables machines to understand and act in the physical world, helping to explain why robots such as the KAIST Humanoid v0.7 appear to move in such a human-like manner.
Instead of just “thinking in words” like typical AI, Physical AI gives machines a sense of space and timing in real environments.
Under KAIST’s broader collaborative intelligence initiative led by Young Jae Jang, the approach trains robots and systems to learn continuously through simulation and real time feedback, rather than relying only on enormous historical datasets.
Essentially, Physical AI merges brain and body by tightly integrating software intelligence with hardware such as motors and sensors so that the machines do not only compute, but also act, react, and collaborate in complex environments, whether as part of fully automated factories or in humanoid robots doing something like kicking a ball.
Engineers are refining the KAIST Humanoid v0.7 with the aim of enhancing its mobile and dexterous capabilities, thereby building on its existing walking and dynamic movement skills. By further integrating AI with mechanical hardware, it plans to get the robot to perform more complex tasks like carrying items or operating machinery, bringing Physical AI to real-world humanoid robot applications.
KAIST is one of South Korea’s top universities and is often compared to top global tech schools like MIT in the U.S. Founded in the early 1970s to drive Korea’s scientific and technological growth, KAIST focuses heavily on research in fields such as AI, robotics, physics, and engineering.
