For most of us growing up with Star Wars movies in the 70s,
the concept of having a robot as personal assistant was so futuristic
that we promptly dropped the idea. Not so for the research teams
at Honda Motor Co. who recently unveiled their latest version
of an interactive humanoid robot - ASIMO!
First released in 2001, the new ASIMO's (Advanced Step in Innovative
Mobility), ability to interact with humans has advanced significantly.
Most notably, it can greet approaching people, follow them,
move in the direction they indicate and even recognize their
faces and address them by name.
Run, ASIMO, run!
Although
it looks like a cosmonaut, this 120cm quasi- autonomous robot
was conceived to function freely in the normal human living
space - not outer space.
Using visual information captured by a camera mounted in its
head, ASIMO is able to detect the movements of multiple objects
and can even interpret the positioning and movement of a hand.
Thus ASIMO can react not only to voice commands, but also to
the natural movements such as pointing, waving or the 'stop'
gesture.
This ability was recently demonstrated at Robocup 2002, in
Fukoaka, Japan, where several different humanoid robots battled
it out in a game of soccer. None of the participants, ASIMO
included, have the ability to run yet, as it takes massive amounts
of computing power just to maintain bipedal balance, so the
games were held at walking speed. However, this didn't stop
spectators from "going wild" as though they were at
the real World Cup, with the face-offs in penalty kicks the
most exciting moments of the game.
Programmed with the ability to recognize the faces of up to
10 different people, address them by name, communicate a message,
and then direct and guide them to a predetermined location makes
ASIMO the perfect butler. By accessing the Internet, ASIMO can
also provide the questioner with the latest news and weather
updates.
The psychology of shape & size
In an article for Scientific American, Masato Hirose, who
led the development of ASIMO explained, "The merit of
a humanoid is that it can go every place a human can go"
adding that robots that look human will make interactions
more natural.
ASIMO's size was chosen to not only allow it to maneuver
easily in an office or home environment, but also be at eye
level with an adult human sitting in a chair. While practicality
may be at the root of this development - having a humanoid
robot that towers over you could be very unsettling.
ASIMO where are you?
Able
to leap tall buildings in a single bound? Well not quite, but
for robot enthusiasts and developers alike, ASIMO's ability
to move up and down stairs, to change direction without interruption,
and to assess its immediate environment is the next best thing.
Having a robot remember who you are, greet you by name and act
as a receptionist - even better!
While not quite as sophisticated as the vision of C3PO, who
had both personality (to say the least) and a very high artificial
IQ, this talented little humanoid robot is currently making
the rounds at public events, museums and expositions.
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