Robot wars: HKU academics demand answers on funding of project featuring HK$15m machine
Academics seek answers about the project and are demanding greater budget transparency
A HK$15 million robot is at the centre of a row between Hong Kong University academics as some questioned the project and demanded greater budget transparency.
Atlas, a 1.9-metre-tall robot which can walk and practice tai chi, was purchased by HKU’s Faculty of Engineering in 2013 from US robotics company Boston Dynamics. It is billed as the most advanced humanoid robot to date, and HKU is the first institution outside the United States to own one.
Despite a disastrous start that saw Atlas losing balance and breaking its right ankle during a short tai chi demonstration here in 2013, the faculty this year entered it into the Virtual Robotics Challenge organised by the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency, an agency under the US defence department. Atlas has now reached the final round of the competition.
But many faculty members questioned the project and demanded the dean, Professor Norman Tien, give a budget breakdown and details of spending on Atlas and HKU’s two-year-old Advanced Robotics Laboratory.
“All the faculty members just do not know in terms of budget what’s going on,” said Dr Cheung Sing-wai, associate professor in the department of electrical and electronic engineering.