As most of you may know ASIMO came to Hawkley Hall High School, Wigan. I had the chance to work hand in hand with the ASIMO Europe team which was a once in a life time opportunity for me, so I jumped at it. In this report you will here all about the history of ASIMO and the future including my personal report of what happened.
ASIMO is the world's must advanced humanoid robot developed by Honda Japan. ASIMO Stands for Advanced Step In Innovative Mobility and was launched in 2000. It stands at 120cm (4ft) and is 45cm wide, it weights 52kg, walks at a speed of 1.6km/h and its hands grasp at 0.5kg. It can operate for 30 minutes on a full battery and has 26 degrees of movement.
The New Research Model (Running ASIMO), runs at a speed of 3km/h and is airborne for 0.05 seconds. It walks at a speed of 2.5km/h which is also faster than the original. Its battery lasts 1 hour which is 30 minutes longer. It has 8 more degrees of movement (new 34, old 26), it is also taller at 130cm. Running ASIMO has just been put in the Guinness book of record as the fastest running robot in the world.
Honda have been working on the project since 1986 and have now got an intelligent walking, real-time, flexible-walking technology allowing ASIMO to walk continuously while changing directions, and giving the robot even greater stability in response to sudden movements. They are now looking to improve artificial intelligence so that the robot can really help people in the future.
William De Braekeleer said “For example, a nurse who is taking care of a patient or an elderly person could be helped by the robot. I don’t mean that the robot will actually care for patients itself, but it could help out by making beds, cleaning rooms or collecting medication. And we hope it will also be able to do some jobs that are dangerous or harmful for humans, such as cleaning toxic fumes. Eventually we want a robot that can execute normal tasks, even offer you advice and hold something similar to a discussion. But I think we’re 15 or 20 years away from that.”
ASIMO is here to open the school's new Engineering block, developed because the school has just attained 'Specialist Engineering College' status. Mr Halford invited ASIMO to inspire and motivate students saying "We hope that the visit from ASIMO will encourage students to continue with science subjects and raise standards and achievements in engineering." Many students including myself were amazed by the robot. It is only the second public appearance in the United Kingdom and a first time in a school in Europe.
National government figures have shown that between 1991 and 2000 the number of students taking physics at A-Level and beyond dropped by 21%. In the same period there was also a 9% drop in maths and a 3% drop in chemistry. So it is hoped that ASIMO will inspire everyone to try their very best and maybe one day they too could make a robot like this.
View Letter the ASIMO team sent
me