[Art]

It would seem that the engineers at Honda just keep getting better at
refining Asimo's abilities.
Check out the movies at:
http://asimo.honda.com/inside_asimo_movies.asp

Really impressive use of technology! 

[FuzzieDice]

DAYYUMMM! I remember when he was just learning to walk! Seems like yesterday. My how those robots grow so fast. :-)

I am impressed! I wonder how QRIO is doing and Actroid? Two other Asian developments which were also quite advanced. Actroid couldn't walk though. She can gesture and talk, however. QRIO can walk and move, but I don't know if it can talk at all. Of all the robots I been trying to follow up on, Asimo seems to be the most advanced so far, as far as nearing human capability.

Pity they didn't go for a more human look though. If they would develop it within an android form, that would rule! :-)

Thanks for the update! Asimo is one of the robots I'm quite interested in seeing develop.

[Art]

FD,

QRIO talks, listens, recognizes faces, has an auto-balance feature to adjust for uneven surfaces,
is able to return to a standing position after a fall and if a fall is detected, it automatically, "relaxes"
all of it's joints to lessen any potential damage to gears, componenets, etc.

Go here and check out the FLASH version if possible:
http://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/QRIO/

[Maviarab]

Very very cool... 

[FuzzieDice]

Neat!

I have been wondering when this class of robots will be available to the consumer. I know we have RoboSapien now though I don't have one as of yet. Haven't had the money to get one, really. I would imagine something like Asimo or Qrio would be on the order of thousands of dollars, like buying a house or something. LOL!

I hope that in a few years or less they will have it ready for maybe a couple grand, something more suitable for the consumer market. Would be interesting to see how it ends up.

[Art]

FD,

It's my understanding that QRIO cost somewhere in the order of $50,000 USD (give or take a few thousand).

I shudder to think how much Asimo must cost!

Perhaps in time, just like the RADIO, TV, COLOR TV, VCR, DVD, CAMCORDER, etc., there will be one in every household!!

(Yeah...like I should live THAT LONG!!)

[FuzzieDice]

LOL! I thought that about computers when I was 7 years old and watching them on a black and white TV set. LOL!

A friend of mine stopped in today and I showed her the Asimo videos from the site. She noted that if you put a 'V' at the end of 'Asimo' you'd get 'Asimov' "as in I Robot" she said. Pretty clever observation. I didn't even notice!

[admin]

That video link no longer works but here's another link to the robot series history :

http://world.honda.com/ASIMO/history/p1_p2_p3.html

and a large entry on WIKI:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asimo