Honda's cute robot friend Asimo turns 20
Asimo's come a long way in 20 years, and the Japanese automaker doesn't plan to call it quits any time soon.
The 20th century promised a lot. Flying cars, robot friends to help with chores, and rockets to wherever humankind could take us were all on the docket. Needless to say, we haven't quite gotten there yet, but if anything, we've come closest to realizing robotic friends. And one prominent robot celebrates a milestone this year: Honda's Asimo.
Asimo burst onto the stage back in 2000 and was an incredibly advanced robot at the time. Asimo walks, talks, shakes hands with strangers and much more. In fact, the celebratory video Honda created is entirely narrated by Asimo and its friendly child-like voice. Standing just over 4 feet tall, Honda maintains Asimo is the best household helper to get into hard-to-reach areas. It can even run at speeds up to 3.7 mph.
While most of the features seem pretty ordinary, such as simply bending down or grabbing objects, Honda says these are crucial building blocks so Asimo can help humans in the future. If you want Asimo to open a jar, it needs to know how to walk, grab the object and twist it open, for example.
Honda remains optimistic these small steps will create a fully functioning and intelligent Asimo tomorrow. The goal is to continue making steady progress through 2030. Maybe we'll see an Asimo for every house one day, but in the meantime, happy birthday, little robot dude.
