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About

Hyunbum Cho is a robotics researcher whose work centers on humanoid robot control, disaster response robotics, and rehabilitation engineering. He is best known for his pivotal contributions to Team SNU (Seoul National University) during the 2015 DARPA Robotics Challenge (DRC) Finals, where his team—one of the newly qualified entrants—demonstrated cutting-edge approaches to system architecture and controller design for the THORMANG modular humanoid robot. His papers on the DRC, including the highly cited "Approach of Team SNU to the DARPA Robotics Challenge finals" (28 citations), detail innovative strategies for enhancing robot capability in complex, real-world disaster scenarios, such as wall cutting and tool manipulation under torque constraints. Beyond disaster robotics, Cho has applied his expertise to medical robotics, developing a rehabilitation exercise robot for treating low back pain, which targets proven stabilization exercises like the "big 3" to address a global health crisis. With over 65 combined citations across his most-cited works, Cho’s research bridges the gap between high-stakes autonomous systems and practical therapeutic solutions, offering valuable lessons in control strategy and human-robot interaction for both academic and clinical applications.