Honda unveils 'smarter' Asimo humanoid robot

It was a way to try to answer some critics that Asimo, first shown in 2000, had been of little practical use so far, proving to be nothing more than a glorified toy and cute showcase for the Honda brand.

Headless idiotic critics.. Asimo was not developed as a nuclear rescue robot but mostly as a marketing tool (and it does that job wonderfully). Tepco should have been under fire for not founding nor developing the required technologies. I wonder why nobody criticizes Tepco for killing some robotics projects just a few years ago. Why on Earth should Honda even care about Tepco's faeces??

Asimo, I'll have that rum and coke now please!

Asimo is amazing...its like a little person in a robot costume

This welcomed news for the elderly. And in 20 yrs time (1st world countries of course), physical handicap will b history (well to those who work hard, dream big, achievers that will afford it).

Asimo is very gimmicky, but i see it more as an ongoing R&D project pushing the boundaries of robotics foward all the time. Cant be a bad thing.

They still need to work on a rad-hardened version to help out in the reactors. Place a charging station inside the reactor building and the robot won't have to leave.

Asimo rules!

'Hop on one foot and pour a drink'. Not at the same time, surely? Not the sharpest robot in the old box then ....

when Honda or any other japanese company do what Boston Dynamic is doing wake me up!

have you seen this video of the new petmen? checkout http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mclbVTIYG8E&feature=feedu

He's making progress, not a Robonaut2 whose doing a stint in outerspace to be calibrated for low orbit operations.

Asimo is an advertising vehicle for Honda.

It's the first time I see videos of Asimo and I got very impressed with what this little robot can do. In the other hand, it seems all his movements are programmed. What makes this robot not intelligent.

If that is true, Asimo may have reached it's limit. It won't do any better than this. I think the actual model of development requires very much effort of engineers to little significant gains/improvements.

It would be interesting if the technology was open to the public, so anyone interested could contribute to it.

Anytime, anyplace, a "Steve Jobs" of robotics will show up and revolutionate this market. And I'm afraid this person will not come from Japan, where everything is closed and innovation are most of the times criticized.

The robot market needs more intelligent approach, like technology that allows robots to learn and act by themselves.

Robonaut2 in outerspace http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hkagxtiy1-M

Asimo will get there.

@ The_True

I went to the link and watched the Robot , he was kickin it in Timberlands he was good. I like the Robonaut more cause his bottom half is inter-changeable he even has his own vehicle attachement.

For people who want s to see it actually move in action here are the vids.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQlhB_7p6I4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2SDL7q_i84g

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

The biggest feature of this machine is that it does it all in one single small package which requires immense coding and sensors working in a system to pull it off.

WOAH, thanks for the link to Boston Dynamics.

America will have Terminators real soon. I'm so excited. We will win the war against Terrorism and groups like Al Qaeda.

Asimo... more like "Awesome-o" amirite?

@NetNinja

America will have Terminators real soon. I'm so excited. We will win the war against Terrorism and groups like Al Qaeda.

You just had to scare me. Checkout Robonaut with is Centaur vehicle attachement. All he would need it weaponary and NO Body could get away from him. http://robonaut.jsc.nasa.gov/default.asp

When Asimov learns to procreate... then I will be worried.

NetNinja:

" America will have Terminators real soon. I'm so excited. We will win the war against Terrorism and groups like Al Qaeda. "

Yes, you will have all these funky Asimov-on-steroid toys, but no, you will not win the "war against Terrorism" with them. That is pure wishful thinking and refusal to address reality.

@NetNinja

It'll have to learn how to get off the tread mill and remove it's tethers as you can see attached when doing extracurricular moves like exercising.

It should first be able to walk like BigDog on rough terrain, if it wants to get inside a blown-up reactor plant:

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

If you're in the neighborhood, why not watch Asimo in action at Honda's headquarters building at Aoyama-Itchome in downtown Tokyo. He/she/it puts on a pretty neat show. And now the newest Asimo will undoubtedly be better yet ... And the show is free ...

Edojin, good advice, it's really interesting and one can get really close to it... All in all, it's a very interesting machine.

Asimo has nothing on Boston Dynamic's "Big Dog" and "Petman".

Asimo has nothing on Boston Dynamic's "Big Dog" and "Petman".

Big Dog is creepy as hell to watch but it's equally impressive. Asimo is more of a 'sum of the parts' project. We've built robot arms that work incredibly well, robot legs, robot eyes, and even some rather complex robot brains. Honda brings those parts together, while Asimo isn't as usefull as each of it's individual parts it does show us that we are improving.

Slowly paving the way for our obot overlords.

Can it cook too?

Are you sure there's not a little man inside that suit?..sure looks like it

one word....................kawaii

awesome!! lets get it to Fukushima and help out. But they didnt mention if it had better radiation shielding. how is that?

Asimo is a research project that is a continuation from the old P3 and P2 projects. My company loaned one(only way) for presentations.

Japanese robot research is mostly into making them like humans and their findings are used globally. Yeah, japan is a leader in industrial robots too.

Myself got 4 robots here and can also program them.

Neither of which (incl. Asimo, BigDog, etc) can truly operate on their own nor make their own decisions. They are still closer to automatons than intelligent robots. I-Robot, etc is still a few decades away.