Honda amps up the Asimo
By Peter Rojas 
posted Dec 15th 2004 9:37AM
posted Dec 15th 2004 9:37AM
We're still dying to know whether the Asimo would best Sony's Qrio in a little wrasslin' contest or not, but
apparently Honda doesn't want to take any chances and has busted out a new generation of their humanoid robot that
comes with a bunch of new features like "posture control" technology that is supposed to make it run more naturally,
"autonomous continuous movement" technology that helps it get around obstacles more easily, and better visual sensors
so it can move in sync with a person and do stuff like move forward or backwards when its hand is pushed or
pulled.
[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
"Oh thank you Asimo for saving our city from the evil giant lizard monsters. Our whole school, and all its cute children, would have been crushed by the monsters rampage. Now I must ask, is that a power adapter or are you just happy to see me?"
Incredible, absolutely incredible. I can't wait to see one of these in person so to speak!
Does this thing remind anyone else of Twiki, or is it just me...?
biddy biddy biddy biddy
Anybody look at this thing and not think this is the beginning of the end? Let's hope they never learn how to reproduce.
Sorry, they learned to reproduce themselves in 1960.
I think we should accept that the robots are going to rule and let the asimo and Qrio just shoot eachother
Does it have air bags?
Just look at the videos. http://world.honda.com/HDTV/ASIMO/ this is slightly scary... Although he/she/it does seem timid- it seems weary of the markings on the ground, but this is how it all starts then later- there's running and screaming...
Does it worry anyone that there are no American companies investing real money into developing robots of their own? (And the roomba and a couple of low budget mit projects don’t count)
irobot puts a large amount of their resources towards developing robots for the military. The roomba is just their consumer product. I think japanese culture is a lot more fascinated with robots. The US will probably catch up once there are real mainstream uses for robots.
In a rumble, Asimo looks like he'd have the weight advantage. Qrio is about half his size.