Last month in Tokyo, the Japanese automobile company Honda unveiled what it considers the most intelligent humanoid robot in the world. The new robot, named ASIMO for Advanced Step in Innovative Mobility, stands four feet tall, weighs 115 pounds and has a striking resemblance to a moon-walking astronaut.
ASIMO project leader Stephen Keeney said the robot represents a convergence of cutting-edge technological advances in electrical engineering, physics and applied human anatomy. Although Honda leases the robot in Japan for roughly $160,000 a year, Keeney said it has no plans to market the robot in the United States.
“In Japan they are used as greeters,” Keeney said. “In the U.S., we plan to use ASIMO to encourage children to be excited about science.”
The ASIMO robot uses a camera mounted inside its head to interpret body postures and gestures. The robot can recognize up to 10 different people and address them by name, it can communicate simple messages and it can guide people to pre-programed destinations. It also can walk up and down stairs, avoid immobile objects, recognize its name when called, shake hands and transmit images of a visitor’s face.
Keeney said he envisions ASIMO eventually evolving into a tool to guide the blind or to assist people in wheelchairs.
“People have used animals to help, but a robot with the capabilities to help, now — that’s a good idea,” sophomore James Kim said.
It may be a good idea, but for now ASIMO can only operate for 30 minutes between charges, and it can’t get wet. Researchers are also trying to develop a way for ASIMO to pick itself up when it falls.
Senior research associate Brian Drabble at the University’s Computational Intelligence Research Laboratory said ASIMO is the cutting-edge robot application in the world, but he stressed that artificial intelligence also includes systems that help people plan and schedule complex tasks like building a ship — not just robotics.
To encourage innovations in robot design principles, real-time reasoning and team strategy acquisition, robotics researchers are working to develop a team of fully autonomous humanoid robots that can defeat the World Cup champion soccer team by 2050. Their ultimate goal is to create robots capable of search-and-rescue in large scale disasters.