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Honda's ASIMO A Few Steps Closer To Human 191

Posted by timothy from the no-turing-test-winner dept.
Rauchenator points to an article on Yahoo! about "the new enhanced Honda Asimo which now can gracefully walk down stairs, respond to human commands and even work like a receptionist (Sit there). The Honda site even has videos showcasing the robot doing its thing. The article points out that the robot makes celebrity-size salaries when put on display, too."
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Honda's ASIMO A Few Steps Closer To Human More

Honda's ASIMO A Few Steps Closer To Human

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  • How long before "they" rice it out? (Score:4, Funny)

    by Mustang Matt ( 133426 ) on Wednesday November 14, 2001 @04:50AM (#2562308)
    I can just see it, once this robot gets to the U.S. all the riceboys will start putting Japanese stickers on it that they can't even read. Then they'll put an 8" exhaust tip and cut the legs down until they're only 2 inches tall.

    Put some glowing blue lights all over it and they're ready to go.

  • The solution (Score:3, Funny)

    by smaughster ( 227985 ) on Wednesday November 14, 2001 @04:53AM (#2562314)
    ``We hope to have Asimo on sale once it is more user-friendly, when it will be able to fetch things you ask for,'' said Makoto Hirose, senior chief engineer at Honda R&D Co Ltd.

    An Asimo to get those slippers and a beer for you, an Aibo to fetch the newspaper... I think Honda is trying to sell joe-doe life to socially incapable rich geeks.

    • ASIMOS TALE (Score:5, Funny)

      by squaretorus ( 459130 ) on Wednesday November 14, 2001 @06:12AM (#2562468) Homepage Journal
      "when it will be able to fetch things you ask for"

      'OI - ASIMO - GET ME A BEER! - A COLD ONE! - FRENCH! - A 1664 BRUN!'

      Asimo wanders to the fridge, finds it empty, goes down to the shops with your CC and picks up a few cold beers, and a bag of nuts, and a magazine. He pays at the counter, leaning forward as though being a little unstable, and wanders back. It wanders through to the kitchen, finds all the glasses are dirty, washes up, pours you a nice cold beer and brings it through to you. It tells you that the chick in the off licence was wearing 'that blue shirt' and makes a lewd hand action. It then dumps a close up video of 'that blue top' to your machine. And presents the nuts. You never thought of the nuts, but you do actually quite fancy some nuts.

      Ahhhh Heaven!
    • Never mind Cleaning up the apartment or vacuming the Potato chips of your chest while you are lounging roung on the sofa whatching a "Farscape" marathon on TV. And it could also deal with the pesky old woman from the down stairs apartment when she comest to complain about the way the 3D surround sound rig hookedup to your PC (Set to Max Volume of course) makes the walls shiver when you fire your AK 47 while you play Counter Strike at 2'o clock at night.

    • Re:The solution (Score:2, Funny)

      by Jerf ( 17166 )
      I think Honda is trying to sell joe-doe life to socially incapable rich geeks.

      Or those of us too enlightened to demand our spouses do that.

      Or perhaps more accurately in my case, those of us with spouses too enlightened to allow us to get away with demanding that.

      Side note: Damn enlightenment.

  • Fast boot! (Score:5, Funny)

    by James_G ( 71902 ) <james AT globalmegacorp DOT org> on Wednesday November 14, 2001 @04:55AM (#2562316)
    The 114.6-pound product of 15 years of development by Japan's third largest carmaker, first unveiled a year ago, can now be initialized, or booted, within four minutes

    Faster than my wife in the mornings, anyway..

    -- a big leap from a previous 40-minute start-up.

    Hm, that's more like it..

    Excuse me, my wife wants a word wit... argh!

  • Next up: (Score:3, Funny)

    by Hektor_Troy ( 262592 ) on Wednesday November 14, 2001 @04:57AM (#2562320)
    Teaching it not to leave the lid up on the toilet, not to stand up peeing (it leaves a horrible mess of water and oil), taking out the garbage, to cuddle afterwards and how to partake in a meaningfull talk about feelings.
  • When they are cheep enough (or someone decides to give a whole stack of cash, um.. i mean sponsorship) I want to make an action movie with these guys. Dress them up, put wigs and flack jackets on them and do all the ninja action movie stuff with them, have them shoot at each other, car chases, jumping onto moving trains etc.

    If real actors are already worring about digital actors taking their place (final fantasy etc.) then I just want to give them one more thing to worry about.
  • I wonder what their intentions are. Are we going to see some scaled down versions in stores next X-Mas? :-)

    It would be nice if the web site gave a bit more info... like tips for aspiring robot developers.

    The future of robotics looks VERY bright... more and more powerful CPU's comming out... new materials... advances in computer vision and speech recogintion... Let's hope the future isn't _too_ bright for them. ;-)

    Later.
  • When Honda stops making these stupids robots and begins making cyclones...
  • ``In terms of costs and attraction, Asimo would rank among the celebrities called on to host events,'' said Toshiji Asai, manager of Asimo's business office.

    Great, what next? Inaugarations by Aibo - hey there nice doggie doggie. Jump over that ribbon?
    (no pun intended)...
  • Could be usefull to drive the cars of the same constructor .. shipped in the "read the news in the morning" package.

  • Asimo Special Site (Score:1, Redundant)

    by vehtari ( 137124 )
    Here is the link to Honda site mentioned:
    Asimo Special Site [honda.co.jp].
  • Neco = cat(japanese), ro from robot. site [omron.com] Same mistake in the zdnet [zdnet.co.uk] article, extremely similar to the linked yahoo article if you ask me.. :) .. Thanx Reuters..

  • It gets paid HOW MUCH? (Score:5, Funny)

    by Tsar ( 536185 ) on Wednesday November 14, 2001 @05:21AM (#2562389) Homepage Journal
    IBM Japan is paying over $166,000 a year for Asimo to be a receptionist? Looks like our futurist fantasies were half right — robots will do the menial jobs for us, but they'll charge through the nose for it. Maybe I can find a cheap one that'll fetch my slippers for only a couple grand a week.
    • from the original article...
      Among them is IBM Japan, which hired Asimo as a receptionist for an annual contract of 20 million yen ($166,200).


      Well, I looked at the exchange rate [xe.com] and now it looks more like $164,000

      that's still plenty of loot. If anybody reading this is in the market for a robot receptionist, but doesn't want to cough up 1.5 g's...for only 45,000 USD, I'd happily come to work wearing a bunch of cardboard boxes covered in tinfoil and talk in a funny voice.

      beedeebeedeebeedee!

    • Re:It gets paid HOW MUCH? (Score:5, Funny)

      by squaretorus ( 459130 ) on Wednesday November 14, 2001 @06:15AM (#2562475) Homepage Journal
      "IBM Japan is paying over $166,000 a year for Asimo to be a receptionist? "

      Seriously guys - what will all those pretty but stupid chicks do if robots get all the cushy receptionists jobs??

      They cant ALL become PAs!
    • IBM Japan is paying over $166,000 a year for Asimo to be a receptionist? Looks like our futurist fantasies were half right ? robots will do the menial jobs for us

      Like anything else, right now this is just a PR move. eventually the cost will come down. The cost sounds like it is in line with the Mini computers that were destroyed in the market by the PC

      You will know that they have become ubiquitious when you can have a robot rock band, complete with robots actually playing guitars, piano, etc. doing the dancing, etc

      If fact that is a rather decent prediction. Robot Rock as a Craze.

      • Done. (Score:2)

        by kannen ( 98813 )
        You will know that they have become ubiquitious when you can have a robot rock band, complete with robots actually playing guitars, piano, etc. doing the dancing, etc

        The recording industry has already done this. Maybe you're familiar with a few of these "artists": Britney Spears, NSync, the Backstreet Boys, OTown, Christina Alguilera... =)

    • Not to by nit-picky, but someone should point out that $166,000 a year IS only $3,197 / week.
    • Actually this is pretty much a reasonable concern. A few years ago, Ford laid-off ~5000 employees, most of whom were replaced by machines and computers (not bots). We already see "unskilled labor" tossed aside for machines because cutting a profit is more important than employees being able to feed their families...but what happens now? We go beyond factory workers and manual labor into screwing people out of desk jobs? If, in a few years, these things are produced cheap enough, its not too absurd to worry.

      On the other hand, I'd probably vote for a politicobot before Bush or Gore. At least it would openly admit to being owned by a corporation.

      Man, can you imagine a beowulf cluster of congress? - CmdrTaco
    • A human receptionist probably makes $13,000-$16,000 a year at most for working as a full-time receptionist.

      But the damn robot makes $166,000 a year to sit there?

      Some people are so intrigued by such simple things, that they spend lots and lots of money on stupid ideas.

      "Ha ha! We have a robot as a receptionist! How cool!"
  • Now if they could only make it thin and nimble enough to fit inside a Real Doll [realdoll.com]...

  • The honda Website for the robot... link (Score:3, Redundant)

    by rkt ( 9943 ) on Wednesday November 14, 2001 @05:39AM (#2562434) Homepage
    This is the link to more information on the robot. http://world.honda.com/robot/ [honda.com]

    It talks about specifications... and also has a few movies clips of the robot
  • It won't be complete until Honda have made thousands to sing this song, each one a flattened third out of tune with the rest...

    Share and Enjoy
    Share and Enjoy
    Journey through life
    With a plastic boy
    Or girl by your side
    Let your pal be your guide
    And if it breaks down
    Or starts to annoy
    Or grinds when it moves
    And gives you no joy
    'Cause it's eaten your hat
    Or had sex with your cat
    Spilled oil on your floor
    Or ripped off your door
    And you get to the point
    You can't stand any more,
    Bring it to us
    We won't give a fig
    We'll tell you
    Go stick your head in a pig!

    (Done from memory - I'm a very sad man...)

  • I can beat that! (Score:5, Funny)

    by dankjones ( 192476 ) on Wednesday November 14, 2001 @05:48AM (#2562445) Homepage
    I'll dress up in a robot suit and walk around like a 6 foot tall constipated baby for HALF THE PRICE.

  • I saw a clip of it walking down some stairs on TV yesterday. The movement looks very human. The first few seconds I thought it was a guy dressed up as a robot in some SF movie...

  • Isaac Asimov (Score:3, Informative)

    by Per Abrahamsen ( 1397 ) on Wednesday November 14, 2001 @05:59AM (#2562455) Homepage
    The two-legged, four-foot white and silver Asimo, whose Japanese name roughly translates as ``legs, even,'' was on display on Monday, showing off its new skills.
    It's name may mean "legs, even", but it must also be a hint to Isaac Asimov, who invented the term "robotics" and brought the sci-fi portrait of robots away from the Frankenstein myth.
    • dude. Asimo is not the JAPANESE name of the thing.
    • And according to Honda's website [honda.com], ASIMO stands for the punning Advanced Step in Innovative Mobility. I like the Asimov connection better though.

    • Re:Isaac Asimov (Score:4, Interesting)

      by JimPooley ( 150814 ) on Wednesday November 14, 2001 @06:56AM (#2562571) Homepage
      However the word "Robot" pre-dates Asimov.
      Czech playwright Karol Capek wrote "Rossum's Universal Robots" in 1921, deriving the word 'robot' from a Czech word for forced labour.
      This is where our current defintion of robot comes from, and all its derivations.
      Incidentally, the first entertainment to feature 'robots' had them rebelling against their human masters.
    • First thing I thought when I saw it on the news
      last night, was ASIMO is about as close to ASIMOV
      as you can get without infringing any trademarks.

      OLIVAW would have been better :-)

      Kudos to Honda for (even inadvertantly) acknowledging Asimov.

  • Hire ME! DOMO ARROGATO(sp?) (Score:5, Funny)

    by clinko ( 232501 ) on Wednesday November 14, 2001 @06:05AM (#2562462) Journal
    Among them is IBM Japan, which hired Asimo as a receptionist for an annual contract of 20 million yen ($166,200).

    At $166,200 I'll wear a damned plastic suit in Japan.

    I can't help be reminded of the great song by a band called STYX in the rock opera KILROY.

    Does this sound familiar?

    "Domo arrogato(sp?) Mr. Roboto..."

    "I'm not a robot, without emotion, i'm not what you see... My heart is human, my blood is boiling, MY BRAIN IBM!"

    -STYX (Mr. Roboto)
  • Does anyone have any data on how strong it is? How fast it can move? Just wondering if it could kick someone's ass.
    • It says on the Honda site [honda.com] that the max it can lift with either hand is 5Kg (that's about 11lb for those of you that work at NASA). Not enough to do serious damage - and anyway, running time is only 15-25 minutes so running away is a good option.

      Besides, I'm sure it follows the three laws [theonion.com].
  • Robots are very different from humans. We don't really understand what their drives are, or theeir motivations. What we do know is that they are getting faster and therefore more intelligent. Already researchers at Reading have produced robots that actually misbehave.

    Experiments like this seem like we're giving our potential overlords far too much self control, and far too much power. If we keep this up, we may soon find ourselves slaves to a the robots rather than the other way round.
  • 1.A robot may not injure a human being, or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.

    2.A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.

    3.A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

    I'm not sure if that makes me feel any better.

  • From the article (Score:1, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    The 114.6-pound product of 15 years of development by Japan's third largest carmaker, first unveiled a year ago, can now be initialized, or booted, within four minutes -- a big leap from a previous 40-minute start-up.

    It might seem heavier than a traditional secretary but it seems it doesn't need to spnd ages in the bathroom to get attractive enough to welcome visitors...

    BTW, 160 kilo-$ a year is cheaper than a year's worth of jewelry, romantic dinenrs and hidden hotel rooms with "the real thing"... but once again I'd miss it ;-)

  • Asimov's Slippers (Score:5, Funny)

    by Scurf ( 443884 ) on Wednesday November 14, 2001 @06:27AM (#2562491) Homepage
    1.A robot may not injure a human being, or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
    2.A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
    3.A robot must protect its own existence, except where such protection would conflict with the First or Second Law.

    ...so a robot would never bring Asimov a beer ;)

    Scurf
    • 0. A robot may not injure humanity, or, through inaction, allow humanity to come to harm.
      • And how does that get Mr. Asimov his beer?
        • Humanity screws with the world for fun, or gainful employment. This, in turn, screws up humanity. The only time humanity stops screwing with the world is when it isn't doing anything productive, such as when it's drinking beer, watching TV or posting on slashdot. Therefore it is in humanity's interests not to risk too much work. Therefore, non-work, such as drinking is good. Therefore, robots would be begging you to sit back, have a beer and let them make sure the world works right.

          Go on, drink for humanity!
    • Beer is good for you. Besides being protective against cardiovascular disease, it aids your digestion and was the primary means of imparting medicinal herbs for most of human civilization. Of course, Asimo would probably know the difference between mass-produced garbage labeled beer and real beer. It would not however, bring you your smokes.
      • And the fucker would prevent me from smoking, lest he let me come to harm through inaction?

        I think such a robot would quickly get a readjustment of the sledgehammer kind.

    • ...so a robot would never bring Asimov a beer ;)

      Which would have been fine with him. Asimov was a teetotaler.

    • 1. A robot must not infringe on intellectual property, or through inaction, allow a intellectual property to be infringed.
      2. A robot may not injure a human being unless that human being is infringing intellectual property. If that's the case, go nuts.
      3. A robot must protect its own intellectual property and prevent anyone from hacking, disassembling, or reverse-engineering the robot.
  • It's about the latest robot 'toys'.

    They introduce one of those Sony robotic dogs to a real dog, guess which one won!

    Check it out here... [bbc.co.uk]

  • The article points out that the robot makes celebrity-size salaries when put on display, too

    No you fool. It doess't earn any fookin salary. HOnda are planning to rent it out instead for outrageous sums so that they can recover some of the money they invested. With the present economic situation, I don't see any company shelling out megabucks so that they can have ASIMO moving to-n-fro in some exhibition stall....

    Aside, does anyone know why Honda got into ASIMO rpoject at the first place. My guess is that they wanted to give their engineers experience in electric motors, hydraulics, and/or system programming....typical Honda....can't wait for 2004 NSX....ye gods...

  • The next logical step (Score:5, Funny)

    by flacco ( 324089 ) on Wednesday November 14, 2001 @06:41AM (#2562514)
    You just know that Honda's gonna get together with these guys [realdoll.com].
  • ASIMO doesnt hold a candle to ROBOT FRANK. www.roborfrank.com [robotfrank.com]
  • Mmmh, when will I have my Ping-chan [megatokyo.com] [MegaTokyo.com] just for me ? Asimo is ... less exciting.
  • If it did, I would eagerly buy it!

  • Eliza (Score:2, Insightful)

    by waimate ( 147056 )
    Asked to turn around at a press briefing, Asimo responded in a neutral, if somewhat monotone, voice: ``What do you want?'' while raising a hand and moving some fingers

    Remember the old Eliza program which pretended to carry on a conversation? Same algorithm - if you've got absolutely no frappin' idea, just say something non-commital. Fools most of the people most of the time.

  • Old Lady #1: When my ex-husband passed away, the insurance company said his policy didn't cover him.
    Old Lady #2: They didn't have enough money for the funeral.
    Old Lady #3: It's so hard nowadays, with all the gangs and rap music..
    Old Lady #1: What about the robots?
    Old Lady #4: Oh, they're everywhere!
    Old Lady #1: I don't even know why the scientists make them.
    Old Lady #2: Darren and I have a policy with Old Glory Insurance, in case we're attacked by robots.
    Old Lady #1: An insurance policy with a robot plan? Certainly, I'm too old.
    Old Lady #2: Old Glory covers anyone over the age of 50 against robot attack, regardless of current health.

    [ cut to Sam Waterston, Compensated Endorser ]
    Sam Waterson: I'm Sam Waterston, of the popular TV series "Law & Order". As a senior citizen, you're probably aware of the threat robots pose. Robots are everywhere, and they eat old people's medicine for fuel. Well, now there's a company that offers coverage against the unfortunate event of robot attack, with Old Glory Insurance. Old Glory will cover you with no health check-up or age consideration. [ SUPER: Limitied Benefits First Two Years ] You need to feel safe. And that's harder and harder to do nowadays, because robots may strike at any time. [ show pie chart reading "Cause of Death in Persons Over 50 Years of Age": Heart Disease, 42% - Robots, 58% ] And when they grab you with those metal claws, you can't break free.. because they're made of metal, and robots are strong. Now, for only $4 a month, you can achieve peace of mind in a world full of grime and robots, with Old Glory Insurance. So, don't cower under your afghan any longer. Make a choice. [ SUPER: "WARNING: Persons denying the existence of Robots may be Robots themselves. ] Old Glory Insurance. For when the metal ones decide to come for you - and they will.
  • Damn... Now this.
    I was saving my money for a new Aibo [aibo.com].
    I wonder is this robot is also compatible with my Honda Civic so I could read the paper on my way to work.

  • i'm confused (Score:2, Interesting)

    by xavii ( 92017 )

    are the amusement companies going to just strut the robot around as is for that much money? or are they going to put their character costumes over it.

    i can see it now, "Mickey, take a picture with me."

    "What did you say?" while picking up it's arm and twiddling its fingers.

    The flash goes off and it fritzes out circa Itchy and Scratchy land.

    And are Asimov's laws really what the developers are going to follow presently or in the future? The major funding comes from the military and giant corporations, and we all know they want killing machines or mindless drones. So we have soldiers and slaves, it just doesn't seem like a good future.

    also, a mini-discussion @ e2 about the laws: here [everything2.com]

    xavii aka bob

  • You can see Asimo climbing down the stairs at the most recent event here [honda.co.jp]

  • like a receptionist? (Score:3, Funny)

    by Hieronymus Howard ( 215725 ) on Wednesday November 14, 2001 @07:59AM (#2562715)
    ...can even work like a receptionist

    What? You mean that it can file and paint it's nails, play windows solitaire and gossip on the phone?

    HH
    --
  • "Among them is IBM Japan, which hired Asimo as a receptionist for an annual contract of 20 million yen ($166,200)."

    hey! that's more than I get! And he cannot even find some free pr0n site within 2 minutes! [given enough bandwidth]

    :)
  • It's getting better, but I have to say that I won't invest in one untill it can do what all good robots can do, DISCO!!!!!!
  • could it stand up to Vlad the Impaler? :)

    -Evan
  • I like the idea that Honda is researching different areas besides cars. They've done research on solar powered cars too. It makes me wonder if Nissan and Toyota put their R&D dollars towards things other than vehicle refinements. What makes Honda so special? If Nissan and Toyota do do other things, why don't we hear about them as much as Honda?

    I wonder if it can pick grapes and open eggs withouth squishing them?

    to Honda/Acura of North America: Give us back the 5 door Integra!!!
  • ...replace those annoying fast food employees? I was thinking the other day about how I really wish I could just press buttons at McDonalds for my food and have robots hand it to me. It's not as though that food requires a chef to prepare it, or a human touch to garnish it just so.

    I just figure I have a better chance of understanding an electronically modulated voice on that drive-thru speaker than a mumbling teenager.

    The point of robots is to handle shit jobs below the intellect of humans, right?
  • They should enter it into battle bots. =)
  • ...this thing kind of walks like my grandpa...

    now just add some depends, a lincoln continental, and some funky flowery shirts and i wouldnt be able to tell the difference
  • Really? What's its score on Solitaire, then?
  • a machine that looks like a human? Seriously, what is the point in developing a robot that looks like a human? The design is so limited! Look at all the trouble with bipedal travel. Also, until it has decent AI capabilities, it's not doing anything amazing as far as I am concerned. They've just made a robot that can respond to commands, like any other robot can do, that command set is just more complex, and the robot is alot bigger and looks like a deepsea diver.
  • Its good to see midgets are getting work but i dont know how hot it is in those suits?
  • It only takes 4 minutes for this thing to wake up and be ready for work? There goes MY job.

    psxndc

  • Powered by RTLinux? (Score:1, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    The humanoid Isamu robot [linuxdevices.com] is powered by RTLinux. Does anyone know if this is also true for Honda's Asimo? What's the relation between the two projects?
  • Please check here [slashdot.org] (or just go to my journal page). I wrote this article (after it being rejected by slashdot) on monday in my journal. How about a little credit, tim?

    Mods - this isn't off topic. Its quite on topic (check the link before you mod).

  • Anyone need a fearless ground force? Give this one a few years, lighten it up, armour it, add a rifle of choice, and you've got one hell of a infantry unit. Asimov's laws, whatever. This thing isn't going to be your secretary, it's going to be a great addition to some nations military. There is still substaintial work to be done on the concept, they've definately demonstrated that it's possible to develop a robot that is bipedal and flexible. I'm not sure a lot of people would have thought you could do what they're doing now.

    Nowhere is this shockingly obvious application listed in any of Honda's sites or any popular articles on the topic.

  • the future? (Score:2, Insightful)

    by invisible ( 536543 )
    Honda has invested more than 100M dolars to get to Asimo. It walks. Now it even responds to human commands. In about 10 years it will be able to get you a beer. That in it self may seem like trivial, but once it can help you with 'simple' things, it can do things like nursing. Japan has aging population. 25% of Japan's population will be over 65. That's 40M. Nursing care is expensive (especially since Japan doesn't import foreign workers). Robots like Asimo could take care of 'simple' things. Once in mass production its cost would be in range of a good car (later even less). Would you like a janitor, cook, housemaid, gardner, fireman, guard, babysitter, courier, butler.... for a price of a car?

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