In 2011, an earthquake and its accompanying tsunami destroyed Japan's Fukushima nuclear power plant. The resulting nuclear disaster released large amounts of radioactive material into the surrounding area. Since it was impossible for humans to work in this environment, the Japanese government considered sending in robots to handle the situation. The robots the Japanese were using, however, were not up to the task. Eventually, humans had to do most of the extremely dangerous work. Since then, there has been renewed emphasis on developing robots that can serve in dangerous situations. In response to Japan's nuclear disaster, the 2015 DARPA Robotics Challenge was created to speed up the development of robots that could work in disaster-stricken areas. The competition attracted 25 teams from around the world. The winner was a Korean team from KAIST who developed a robot called HUBO. During the competition, the robots had to solve a series of problems they might come upon in a disaster situation. The tasks were: driving a vehicle, getting out of the vehicle, opening a door, locating and closing a leaking valve, using a drill to cut through a wall, pulling a plug out of a wall socket and then plugging it in, navigating rough terrain, and climbing stairs. HUBO completed all eight tasks in the shortest time of all the competitors – 44 minutes and 28 seconds. The key to HUBO's success was its ability to move from a standing position to a kneeling position. HUBO had wheels attached to its knees and feet. When kneeling, HUBO was able to use these wheels to move around quickly and decisively. From the beginning, HUBO was better than the other robots at performing the tasks. It was able to drive a vehicle fast and when it encountered a barrier, it was able to turn the vehicle smoothly to avoid it. Next, it was able to get out of the car in less than four minutes and, once out of the vehicle, got on its knees and sped away. As the series of eight tasks became progressively more difficult, HUBO's performance on the tasks reflected the growing difficulty. On the fifth task, for which it had to use a drill to cut through a wall, HUBO failed on its first attempt. Generally speaking, it was difficult for a robot to hold a drill in the right position and simultaneously press an on/off button. On the second trial, however, HUBO successfully completed the task. The task that took the longest time for HUBO was the sixth one, pulling a plug out of a wall socket and putting it back into another. It takes a human less than 10 seconds to perform the task, but it took HUBO 13 minutes and 30 seconds. For the final task, climbing stairs, it was important that the robot be able to see its feet. Other robots had difficulty doing this because they had to bend their bodies forward to see over their knees to scan the stairs. This awkward move caused them to lose their balance. HUBO solved this problem in a clever way. It climbed the stairs backward. But how did it see the steps if it was moving backwards? By rotating its upper body 180 degrees. That way, the robot's knees did not block the camera's view of either the feet or the floor. After scanning the stairs, the robot set off to climb to the top, completing the task effortlessly. This amazing robot was not made in a day. The KAIST team had already built four HUBOs and had been improving them for years. They practiced outdoors, in good weather and bad, and on rough terrain. They burned up motor after motor but never gave up. They approached each failure as a challenge to make a faster, stronger, and better robot. The DARPA Robotics Challenge eventually ended, but it is only the beginning. In the future, there will be other robots like HUBO. They will be called upon to perform complicated tasks that will be too dangerous for humans. Scientists expect that these robots will save lives and reduce the damage caused by future disasters.