Robot 'Hubo' runs as Pyeongchang Winter Olympics torchbearer

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One of the traditions of the Olympics is the torch relay, in which people from the host country carry the flame from Olympia, hand on the torch and pass them to the location of the Games.

On Monday, the Korean Advanced Institute of Science and Technology’s robot, named Hubo, carried the Pyeongchang 2018 Olympics torch for the stretch of the relay in Daejon, South Korea.

Robot Hubo carries the Olympic torch. /VCG Photo

Hubo is 1.2 meters tall, has a maximum stride of 65 paces per minute.

Even more impressively, Hubo used a tool mounted on one of its arms to cut through a wall and pass the torch through, all without accidentally setting anything on fire.

According to Olympics Games history, it is not the first robot to carry the torch – or even the first one in the 2018 relay. Earlier this year, an “undersea robotic craft helped carry the flame” for a separate stretch of the months-long relay, which involves some 7,500 volunteers.

Once the competition in Pyeongchang does kick off in February 2018, approximately 85 robots will be “deployed as volunteers.”