ABSTRACT: The robot characters I admired in sci-fi movies, animations, comics, and games from a young age have been a major source of inspiration throughout my journey as a robotics researcher. In this talk, I will reflect on how these fictional characters have shaped my research direction and share the path from imagination to real-world robotics development. I will also discuss the growing importance of humanoid robots that can work closely with humans in manufacturing and logistics, exploring the background and driving forces behind this trend. Lastly, I will introduce the current research direction at KIMLAB aimed at developing Embodied/Physical AI.

BIOSKETCH: Joohyung Kim is an Associate Professor of ECE (Electrical and Computer Engineering) and MechSE (Mechanical Science & Engineering), and the director of KIMLAB (Kinetic Intelligent Machine LAB) at University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. His research focuses on design and control for humanoid robots, system for robot learning, and safe human-robot interaction. He received BSE and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) from Seoul National University, Korea, in 2001 and 2012. He was with Disney Research as a Research Scientist from 2013 to 2019. Prior to joining Disney, he was a postdoctoral fellow in the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University for DARPA Robotics Challenge in 2013. From 2009 to 2012, he was a Research Staff Member in Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology and Samsung Electronics, Korea, developing biped walking controllers for humanoid robots.