ASIMO

Growing up, the world was fascinated with the future. Space exploration and new advances in technology would fuel the development of media platforms and things like science fiction would boom. Dr Who showed us the dark side to robots and Terminator showed us the really dark side to robots. But these ideas needed some technical background, and this is where AI (artificial intelligence) stepped in. Arnold Schwarzenegger was ultimately sent back in time by a super computer called Skynet, the mastermind behind humanity’s destruction.

Today, computers are accessible to the masses and those with the right knowledge can program some sort of A.I in our homes. Honda went and took our sci-fi dreams and made it reality by creating ASIMO, which stands for ‘Advanced Step in Innovative Mobility’.

 (HONDA MOTOR CO., Unknown)

ASIMO can walk and climb stairs independently and “addition to ASIMO's ability to walk like we do, it can also understand preprogrammed gestures and spoken commands, recognize voices and faces and interface with IC Communication cards.” (Strickland, 2007). This robot wasn’t designed to fight or complete one trivial task, it was designed to complete a whole variety of tasks, including potentially dangerous ones, to aid the user. Since the first ASIMO was developed in 2000, many changes were made with added functionality. ASIMOs speed and sensors received huge upgrades allowing it to move faster between steps and improve its recognition of voices and faces.

With the continuous advancement of technology and even recent breakthroughs in VR, ASIMO will continue to be improved. A robotic housemate may be closer than we thought.

Bibliography

HONDA MOTOR CO., L., Unknown. How ASIMO Works. [Online]
Available at: http://science.howstuffworks.com/asimo.htm
[Accessed 16 11 2016].

Robarts, S., 2014. Honda's new ASIMO robot is all grown up. [Online]
Available at: http://newatlas.com/new-honda-asimo-robot/32977/
[Accessed 16 11 2016].

Strickland, L. A. O. &. J., 2007. How ASIMO Works. [Online]
Available at: http://science.howstuffworks.com/asimo.htm
[Accessed 16 11 2016].