New, More Autonomous Asimo Robot Unveiled By Honda 62
An anonymous reader writes "Honda has just unveiled a new, upgraded version of its famous humanoid robot, Asimo. Its appearance didn't change much, but the new robot is lighter, faster, and stronger. It can walk on uneven surfaces, run backwards, and even jump on one foot. The new Asimo also has more dexterous hands and better image and voice recognition to interact with people. Honda's big push is clearly in the direction of making Asimo more autonomous, and useful, in human environments."
Combo (Score:2)
Re:Combo (Score:5, Insightful)
I would rather see Asimo and alpha dog walking into a highly dangerous area and doing the work that man needs to do but really can't safely.
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Alpha dog is old news, and so is asimo.
PETMAN is where its at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mclbVTIYG8E [youtube.com]
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Actually Japan is generally far ahead of the US in robotics. And you can actually buy ASIMO for around the price of a car. Show me a single product that a civilian can buy from Boston Dynamics. As cool as and as uncanny valley as Petman and Big Dog/Alpha Dog are , they are not interested in any market but the US military.
And I bet ASIMO is much more practical. You couldn't even find out what Petman is capable of without a security clearance and a need to know, but I doubt it is anywhere near as advanced in
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Petman doesnt need strong AI. They can make remote controlled land drone out of it with some 18 year old child serving in Military driving it like Predator.
Imagine the possibilities. It can run around killing innocent people with M16, and as soon as someone shoots back its an act of aggression against United States!
Jumping, yay! No, wait... (Score:2)
I am totally ready to buy -- even if it's *quite* expensive -- when I can buy a dependable robot in humanoid form that does all our housework. Wash (or load and start) the dishes, sweep/vacuum the floors, wash windows, do the laundry, sort and put away when clean, change the bedding and make the bed, clean the sinks, toilets, shower and tub, dust, polish the woodwork, bring coffee, cook and serve dinner, clean up afterwards, feed and water the cat, clean the catbox, be able to put away CDs and DVDs in alpha
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No, no, I've tried them... they just go up in smoke when you try to recharge them.
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Agreed. Sign me up.
But, seriously, such a device even as a research prototype is unfortunately several years if not decades away. Part of the problem is hardware (not the part doing the computation but the motors, etc.), but robotics hardware is far ahead of robotics software at the moment. (For a clear view of this, one of my friends who does robotics research pointed out that telepresence surgery---which requires rather good dexterity from the robot hand---works but no one is even seriously suggesting an
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Ultracaps: 1/10th the power of batteries, so 1/10th the run time, but... instant recharge, and effectively unlimited numbers of them. So the robot can drop a hand on a charge plate for about one second, then work for say, ten or twenty minutes. No need for it to have an extended run time if charging isn't a big issue.
As for the rest, yes, exactly.
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In real life... (Score:2)
...this is the worst you'd have to worry about:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASoCJTYgYB0 [youtube.com]
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Don't worry, there won't be a sign.
Just wait for it, (Score:2)
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So cool... (Score:3)
I want one (Score:1)
I have no idea what I'd do with it, but I want one. If anyone was looking for a Christmas gift idea for me, look no further.
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I have no idea what I'd do with it,
When in doubt, try to hump it. It works for my dog.
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I have no idea what I'd do with it,
When in doubt, try to hump it. It works for my dog.
Why did you get a dog if you don't know what to do with it? Also, reporting you to the SPCA...
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Also, reporting you to the SPCA
Go ahead. They will see exactly how mistreated my dog is [imageshack.us]... she's had her ovaries and uterus removed, but that doesn't stop her from trying to shine everyone's shoes.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YvbAqw0sk6M [youtube.com]
And you will know IMMEDIATELY what you'd do with it.
Eyes on the hips as she walks
9 kph running speed (Score:5, Informative)
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that's faster than a lot of people are able to jog at.
Great, so when it hits a bug and I need to reboot it I'll have to get in the car if I want to catch it.
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I, for one (Score:1)
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It can even (Score:4, Funny)
South Park did it! (Score:2)
Evidence: Awesome-O [southparkstudios.com]
Great! But does it behave? (Score:2)
Now how will we guarantee that it doesn't injure humans? I don't care that it may, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm; that would be like having no robot.
What I want to see is a robot design that won't go berserk if its control program throws an exception, making it move its powerful arms uncontrolled or fail to recognize were its fellow humans are located.
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+1 lateral thinking. I must say that I had in mind some basic behavioral rule that would also prevent killer robots in the army, like the First Law did.
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I am aware that the Three Laws didn't work as intended :-) That doesn't mean that having a core built-in safeguard is a bad idea.
I wasn't suggesting fuzzy rules, an auto-kill command as you suggest would suffice. A recent robot movie, (Eva [imdb.com]), on the lines of Spielberg's A.I., features a literal kill-switch triggered by a voice command, which proves itself useful in the narrative. But I doubt that the Asimo robot includes such a feature.
Asimo is cool... (Score:5, Insightful)
That would be my first priority.
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And why you tried to make the one feature perfect, the woerld will leave you behind.
Le mieux est l'ennemi du bien.
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A-Siri-mo (Score:2)
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sarcasm detection?
Oh, THAT'S useful...
Nice, but... (Score:2)
Why is it that a company that can build something cool like that is the same one that says it'd take at least 6 freakin' weeks to build me a new Civic? That was AFTER the dealer tried to string me along of course. (Didn't work - I bought a Nissan instead.)
Dear goodness I hope if/when they ever start mass-producing these that buying one isn't like buying a car. "Sorry we don't have that model and colour in stock right now but we do have the deluxe model Asimo with Chrome finishing. Oh and be sure to get
Direct to English from Japanese? (Score:2)
Price is? (Score:1)
Seriously, I looked on the website but couldn't find out how much an Asimo would cost... I mean, if there's just the one then that makes sense, but Honda is [i]Honda[/i]. It's not like they don't have any experience mass producing advanced machinery and electronics on some kind of assembly line.
So how can I buy one? Not for personal use of course, it would be a corporate expense... which we would use.. somehow for something.
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More Autonomous? Really? (Score:2)
environments (Score:1)
"...making Asimo more autonomous, and useful, in human environments." So long as we're still useful in robotic environments.
Karl's review (Score:2)