I know the movie iRobot was fiction, but shouldn’t we at least be a little leery of the plot in that movie? Well, if you’re like most people you probably didn’t even see the movie, but we’re one step closer to a robot takeover after the latest news from Honda. Honda’s ASIMO humanoid robot can do just about everything. It can run, go up stairs, open a bottle and even shake hands. In other words, it’s pretty creepy. ASIMO made his USA debut this week and greeted fans in a teenage boys voice saying “Hello New York! Thank you for coming today!”. The little guy resembles a miniature astronaut decked out in all white with a helmet on. He stands about 4 feet 3 inches talls and weighs 110 lbs.
ASIMO, short for Advanced Step in Innovative Mobility, was designed to help people in cases of reduced mobility. The first design of the robot was built almost 15 years ago in 2000. The demonstration in New York showed incredible leaps and bounds for ASIMO, who can jump and run at close to 6 mph. Oh by the way, he can talk to.
Senior Chief Engineer at Honda R&D Co., LTD said, “ASIMO was designed to help those in society who need assistance, and Honda believes that these improvements in ASIMO bring us another step closer to our ultimate goal of being able to help all kinds of people in need.”
There’s no doubt that one day ASIMO will help those in need, but right now it’s going to take some time to get use to ASIMO. Who are we kidding – the robot is an incredible step in innovation. Brilliant.
Photo by Dilip Vishwanat/Getty Images for Honda
