Image courtesy: mechanica.in |
Ever felt that the mechano set you had in your childhood was not fulfilling or did u want more out of your toy than the usual repeated voice recording? Ever felt that you could make your toys alive? Well you don’t have to look to your dreams to satisfy you anymore all thanks to technology which has made toys more than lifeless.
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Welcome to the fantastical world of robotics. We shall be looking at a few robots, some commercial and some famous for a breakthrough in their technology in the next few posts that will come out in parts.
Honda ASIMO
Unveiled by Honda in the year 2000, ASIMO stands for Advanced Step in Innovative Mobility. It is a bipedal humanoid robot which stands 4 feet and 3 inches tall and weighs 54 kilos. It looks like a tiny astronaut wearing a bag.
ASIMO can perform complex functions due to the design of its highly mobile body. It can even run at 6 kmph. ASIMO’s height of 4 feet and 3 inches was selected specifically to operate optimally within a human environment.
Apart from the usual stuff like walking or running or waving hands that you might expect out of ASIMO, he (lets treat him like a person because he is almost like one) can do a lot more things.
ASIMO can recognise different people’s faces and greet them with their names. He can also pass on messages from one person to another when he finds them. He can shake hands with people and if you wave to him, he will wave back.
He can avoid humans and other obstacles while walking or running by going around them.
ASIMO will look at your face while talking you, he can even follow you around.
ASIMO can handle trays very well. He can sense a person’s hands and the tray and receive it from them and carry the tray without dropping it or spilling the contents of the tray by sensing if they are about to fall. He can put the slowly and gently on the table by sensing the weight reduction in his hands as he puts the tray on the table.
ASIMO can also carry heavy loads up to 10kgs, now don’t start boasting about how much weight you can lift, remember for a humanoid robot this is a huge achievement. He can even steer a cart by calculating the force he applies to the cart and can also steer around obstacles by taking actions such as slowing down or changing directions.
Rumours are that some multinational corporation has even hired ASIMO from Honda to greet their high profile guests at their headquarters. Now come on, I want ASIMO too, Are you listening Honda?
Now I bet you cannot wait for the day when ASIMO will be available in your electronic store because I surely cannot.
In the next few blogs we will see all the other robots in development or that are available in the market.
From the way robotics development is progressing we can only wait and see what surprises robotics has for the human civilisation.
ASIMO Images Courtesy: http://world.honda.com/ASIMO/
