http://www.inkycircus.com/jargon/images/asimo_4.jpg

For those of you who don't know, ASIMO (Advanced Step in Innovatice MObility) is the world's most technologically advanced humanoid robot made by of course, HONDA. I had a chance to actually see an ASIMO demonstration in person at Disneyland. Although it looks cute and is sometimes presented in a very light-hearted manner, this thing is serious. At just over 4 feet tall, it has the ability to recognize voices and faces, walk up and down stairs, and change direction while running at up to 3.7 mph.

It's exciting yet scary to think how far we have come in this world in terms of innovation and technology, but I for one cannot wait until it is commonplace to have humanoid robots walking around in our everyday life.

Short history/info and demo video:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-htzy0xZpo (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-htzy0xZpo)

Large collection of videos from official site:
asimo.honda.com/asimotv/ (http://asimo.honda.com/asimotv/)

Asimo Commercial:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFgXEkzMq7A (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFgXEkzMq7A)

http://www.10ad.org/wp-content/uploads/2006/11/02.thumbnail.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b7/Asimo_marche.png

http://imot.ch/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2007/02/asimo_run.jpg

And evidently has at least one old Slinky in his (it's) parts bin...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23jdsvwk95k

It's exciting yet scary to think how far we have come in this world in terms of innovation and technology, but I for one cannot wait until it is commonplace to have humanoid robots walking around in our everyday life.
Yes, for a mere $xxx,000, you can have one of these to fetch you a drink while you're watching TV.
Of course, that entails you have an easy to open fridge and no stairs.
It will take a long time for this robot to be:
affordable ( less than say $10-20 k)
useful ( do stuff as efficiently as you can do it)
reliable ( do you imagine you have to ship your best friend back over to Japan for an oil change,or whatever these things need?)

That could be cool,I'm just not sure how soon that will happen :roll:

Hay, gotta start somewhere I guess... :idonno
Good news is unlike almost everything else, anything electronics based only falls in price.

It is a bit creepy when it runs though...

Anyone have one of them Rumba things? Now that would be useful...if only I didn't have laundry and all sorts of other crap on my floor... :roll: :roll:

Good news is unlike almost everything else, anything electronics based only falls in price.

True, assuming they break even (covering their fixed costs) at fairly low volumes(i.e. by skimming the market). If not,the final product will not have the time to reach scale(hence profitability) and will be removed from the market.

On the other hand,I think Honda uses that little robot like a mascot, and profitability may not be that big of an issue(for now)

Think you hit it on the head...it's more of a proof of concept and PR. But like I said you gotta start some place. It does have rather realistic movements (Type it's name in YouTube). Especially the very little ones like everything it does going for a more stable position subtlety widen it's stance. Lots of promise for those who are paralyzed or missing limbs I think...hazmat or rescue even, places where they can charge a lot.

Hay VCR's used to cost over $1k and so did DVD players...now $50 so...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3C5sc8b3xM

Think you hit it on the head...it's more of a proof of concept and PR. But like I said you gotta start some place. It does have rather realistic movements (Type it's name in YouTube). Especially the very little ones like everything it does going for a more stable position subtlety widen it's stance. Lots of promise for those who are paralyzed or missing limbs I think...hazmat or rescue even, places where they can charge a lot.

Hay VCR's used to cost over $1k and so did DVD players...now $50 so...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3C5sc8b3xM

That's exactly what I'm saying. I don't really think ASIMO has been designed with mass market consumers in mind (at least for now... :shifty ). Although in demonstrations they use ASIMO as something, toyish even, to fetch drinks and push a mail cart around an office, its potential is far greater than that of doing chores for lazy people.

ASIMO has been a continuing effort in research and development for the past 20 years. And considering how technology is exponential, I think in the next 20 years significant, almost unfathomable, leaps will be made. And not even just with humanoid robots, just take how much storage can be put into memory cards and flash drives these days. They can shove 32gb into a little stick now when just a couple years ago having a 1gb flash drive was soo expensive and impressive.

I think that ASIMO is a symbol of human ingenuity (whether human ingenuity is ultimately a good or bad thing is another debate :wink: ). I think the purpose of ASIMO in its current form at this time is more to lay the groundwork for what is possible in humanoid robotics.

I'm just waiting for Honda to be bought out by Cyberdyne Systems and rename ASIMO the T-800, which will of course be controlled by Skynet. :naughty

It will take a long time for this robot to be:reliable ( do you imagine you have to ship your best friend back over to Japan for an oil change,or whatever these things need?)
reliable? c'mon, it's a Honda! :wink:

ASIMO lives!

The new and improved version has just been unleashed...

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footage with commentary from Aljizzeera:

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Pretty crazy. Definitely looks creepy when it runs.

I like this model better though...

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This is pretty slick too, while we're on the subject:

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So those are our new faceless masters...

Now all it needs is Apple's voice recognition software.

"Asimo, go to the fridge and bring me a beer."

Now all it needs is Apple's voice recognition software.

"Asimo, go to the fridge and bring me a beer."

Honda is waaay ahead of you, brother... a vid from years ago, of an earlier incarnation of ASIMO:

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and now fast forward to the updated ASIMO:

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The all-new ASIMO is now advanced from an "automatic machine" to an "autonomous machine" with the decision-making capability to determine its behavior in concert with its surroundings such as movements of people. At the beginning of the development process, the following three factors were identified as necessary for a robot to perform as an autonomous machine, and the technologies required to realize these capabilities were developed;

1) high-level postural balancing capability which enables the robot to maintain its posture by putting out its leg in an instant,

2) external recognition capability which enables the robot to integrate information, such as movements of people around it, from multiple sensors and estimate the changes that are taking place, and

3) the capability to generate autonomous behavior which enables the robot to make predictions from gathered information and autonomously determine the next behavior without being controlled by an operator. With these capabilities, the all-new ASIMO takes another step closer to practical use in an environment where it can work in harmony with people.