ASIMO

HONDA DOESN'T JUST BUILD CARS AND MOTORCYCLES ANYMORE

Besides automobiles and motorcycles, Honda manufactures a wide array of heavy equipment, including watercraft, generators, and even robots. In fact, the pinnacle of achievement in robotics today may be the Honda ASIMO, a human-like robot standing a little over four feet high and weighing 119 pounds (asimo.honda.com).

ASIMO was first unveiled in 2000, but a number of new versions have been released since then, each with new and impressive abilities. Check out this YouTube video to see for yourself what ASIMO can do:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZngYDDDfW4.

The latest version of ASIMO can individually recognize approximately 10 faces and address them by name, can walk up and down stairs, can greet people as they approach and can even shake hands. Additionally, ASIMO responds not only to voice commands but also to gestures like pointing, which is to say it will move to any location a person points to. Finally, ASIMO’s movements are gentle enough to allow it to receive, carry and hand over objects such as food trays.

Honda’s engineers have broken monumental boundaries by building one of the most human robots ever made, but they aren’t done yet. There will certainly be more to come from Honda’s robotics program, so keep an eye on ASIMO in the future.