BELGIUM: Dexterous humanoid robot dances its way through European debut

Record ID: 401993

  • Title: BELGIUM: Dexterous humanoid robot dances its way through European debut
  • Date: 16th July 2014
  • Summary: ZAVENTEM, BELGIUM (JULY 16, 2014) (REUTERS) HONDA MOTOR EUROPE CORPORATE COMMUNICATIONS MANAGER VIKKI HOOD WATCHING AS ASIMO HUMANOID ROBOT WALKS INTO PRESENTATION ROOM JOURNALISTS WATCHING ASIMO CLIMBING STAIRS ASIMO'S FACE AS HE GREETS AUDIENCE ASIMO RUNNING TOWARDS HOOD ASIMO SHAKING HOOD'S HAND (SOUNDBITE) (English) HONDA MOTOR EUROPE CORPORATE COMMUNICATIONS MANAGER
  • Embargoed: 31st July 2014 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Belgium
  • Country: Belgium
  • Topics: Quirky,Technology,Light / Amusing / Unusual / Quirky
  • Reuters ID: LVA5SO2JB66Z9VB8VJV4ARI1YBJW
  • Story Text: Honda's latest addition to its humanoid robot family made its European debut in Belgium on Wednesday (July 16).
    The dexterous ASIMO (Advanced Step in Innovative Mobility) is able to open a bottle and pour a drink and can express Japanese and American sign language.
    It reaches much faster speeds than its predecessors, being capable of running at 9 km/h, and can move backwards, jump and hop continuously. The robot can even throw shapes on the dance floor, although not all night long as it can currently run uncharged for around 40 minutes.
    ASIMO is a fully autonomous machine with decision-making capabilities, able to adapt its behaviour to its surroundings in real time. It can respond to people and its environment, with the ability of distinguishing voices and avoiding collisions.
    European audiences are more reticent compared to their Japanese counterparts when they first see ASIMO, Honda Motor Europe Corporate Communications Manager Vikki Hood told Reuters Television.
    "Japan is more advanced in the sense that they're quite acclimatized to having robots around. In Japan's society they have an ageing population, they have perhaps not enough people to do all of the jobs that are around so they use robots a lot more than we do in Europe," she explained.
    ASIMO's place will largely be in the home, although Honda's Research and Development (R&D) Senior Chief Engineer Satoshi Shigemi acknowledged there were some psychological barriers to overcome before households will accept such robots. It is hoped its height at 120cm tall, making ASIMO a similar size to a child, would be one way of easing people's concerns.
    Humans will always remain the controlling force in robotic relationships, Shigemi assured, but he added engineers are striving for people to develop sympathetic feelings towards robots.
    "It's maybe similar to your own car where you also start producing a certain bond, a certain emotional relationship and maybe it's even more sophisticated for ASIMO because it somehow looks like a human and acts autonomously, so there is much more interaction than you have maybe with a car. But nevertheless the human will always keep control and the robot will always be the assisting part," he said.
    A mobility device, called the UNI-CUB, was also revealed at the presentation, which Honda's R&D Chief Engineer Shinichiro Kobashi hoped will exceed the functions of a wheelchair.
    Users can move the device forward, backward, side-to-side and diagonally by shifting body weight thanks to an omni-directional driving wheel system and balance control technology.
    The creation is not solely intended for disabled people. Kobashi envisages the device being used in areas such as museums and shopping malls, although he emphasised it was not meant to completely replace walking.
    "It is something that we've designed so that you can enjoy being in open spaces, but because this device moves in a way which is almost like walking so you are there within a group of people and you are moving, emerging and moving in the same way as all the other people do. So this is something we hope people will enjoy using in places where you find people walking, but it's not actually intended to replace your normal walking," he explained.
    Honda began developing robots in 1986, with the purpose of helping people in need.
    ASIMO was originally developed as a communications robot, but Japan's 2011 earthquake and subsequent Fukushima disaster showed the need for working robots to perform tasks in dangerous places on behalf of people. Honda plans on therefore producing robots that have a useful role to society, such as the survey performing robotic arms used at the Fukushima Nuclear Plant in 2013.
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