Friday, January 29, 2010

Honda's Living With Robots

If you like the robot ASIMO built by Honda and want to know a little more about why a car/motorcycle company is interested in building such a robot, here's your chance.

Posted by Shep at 6:58 PM
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4 comments:

  1. WarrenJanuary 30, 2010 at 4:11 AM

    Cool video. So many thoughts ...

    I like the very short shot they gave of the evolution of ASIMO, from a clunky box with pseudo-legs, all the way to the current iteration which is very humanoid-looking (except for the face).

    Bottom line, though, is that I think that Honda realized in the 80s that the time of the wheel may end soon, but they are, as they said, a "mobility company", and so they wanted to be ahead of the pack in replacing wheeled vehicles with those that just have legs underneath. So in the next few decades we'll all be buying Hondas that run us to our destinations rather than roll us there.

    (I hope the sense of humor comes out in that ...)

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  2. ShepJanuary 30, 2010 at 9:45 AM

    I think that stuff is really cool to look at, but the problem is that it is not Fail-Safe, meaning if something fails, the whole unit becomes unsafe. Same with the seqway.

    See what I mean... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASoCJTYgYB0

    Now Honda is coming out with a new gadget (you have to check this out)...
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCSQPnGkt78

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  3. WarrenJanuary 30, 2010 at 7:38 PM

    I actually felt bad for the poor ASIMO guy when he fell ...

    As for the other video ... I was thinking that it looked like two chicks on a portable toilet seat, and THEN I saw the comment someone left saying the same thing. But ... neat idea anyway. Wonder how they balance it? I've ridden Segways a number of times and they really are as "instinctual as they say. But that's two wheels --- just balancing forward and back. One wheel is a completely different story ...

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  4. ShepJanuary 30, 2010 at 8:53 PM

    These balance things really scare me on a personal level. I have a wierd disorder where the nerves in my legs don't work, and one of the side effects is that my balance is beyond horrible; almost none existent. Standing on a Seqway and especially that one wheeled contraption frightens me to no end.

    (but I would still pay to try one out)

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