HONDA ASIMO FALLS DOWN STAIRS - Sexy Robots Videos

Wow, amazing. This has come a long way since the worst demo ever: ▶ this video The way it manipulates stuff with the hands is very impressive, not to mention the 'understanding' required to pour liquid like that. Wonder how much of that was scripted.

Interestingly, Japan has spent loads of time on manufacturing robots and personal service robots of dubious utility (see Asimo, Toyotashi and others), while the U.S. has dumped military money at robots and ended up with drones, bomb disposal robots, exoskeletons, etc. etc. While I agree that the level of technology and packaging in Japanese robots in generally higher than U.S. counterparts, to take a rather cheap shot, it was U.S. drones and robots that were first on the scene. Due to the pedigree of mobile robotics, the U.S. needed systems that worked now and not the future...resulting in a variety of heavy duty operable robots capable of working in difficult environments. Here's arguably the most advanced robot in the world handling perfectly normal stairs ▶ this video ▶ this video Conclusion? Make the robot more like a crappy old American robot. link It's critically important PR for the Japanese robotics industry to respond to Fukushima with something of utility. Otherwise these decades of work and millions of Yen in R&D haven't amounted to much more than an interesting series of public demonstrations. link

Asimo is a horrible robot. Biomechanically, It just doesn't scale to a real walking system. Here is the most useful video of Asimo you can find online: ▶ this video