President Obama meets ASIMO, Honda’s Humanoid Robot

During a youth science event at the National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation (AKA Miraikan) in Tokyo, Japan, President Barack Obama was introduced to ASIMO, Honda’s humanoid robot. For those of you who don’t know, ASIMO is an acronym for Advanced Step in Innovative MObility. For 14 years now, Honda has been developing and enhancing ASIMO’s capabilities of interacting with its physical surroundings. ASIMO has improved so much since its inception; it can now walk up stairs, pour and serve a cup of juice, run, recognize faces, and talk.  

President Obama also saw a demonstration of Atlas, DARPA’s (the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) creation of a humanoid robot designed to save lives from the rubble of natural disasters. As advances are being made in robotics, the technology that are fueling these parts are being widely utilized in other aspects of innovation; driver-less cars, wearable devices, drones, and more. People are becoming increasingly more optimistic about the future of high tech.

“…Obama professed his belief in the importance of science and math programs, telling students they ‘have more technology and more power than even the greatest innovators of previous generations, so there is no limit to what [they] can achieve,’ he said" (President Obama Plays Soccer with ASIMO the Robot). The power of technology gives future generations the ability improve innovations and create things that we never thought possible. What do you think the next capabilities for ASIMO are going to be? What would you like a humanoid robot to be able to do? 

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Throwback Thursday: ASIMO re-invents himself!

I was doing some research on Artificial Intelligence (AI) this week and came across ASIMO, the humanoid robot created by Honda in October of 2000. ASIMO is an acronym for Advanced Step in Innovation MObility. It was designed to be a multi-functional mobile assistant. If you want to check out ASIMO live, take a quick trip to Disneyland where you can find ASIMO inside Innoventions located in Tomorrowland. 

In 2011, Honda re-introduced a new version of ASIMO that displayed significant advancements. Honda wanted to move ASIMO from an "automatic machine" to an "autonomous machine." Before they could do that, they had to identify factors that were mandatory for ASIMO to be an autonomous machine. "...1) high-level postural balancing capability which enables the robot to maintain its posture by putting out its leg in an instant, 2) external recognition capability which enables the robot to integrate information, such as movements from people around it, from multiple sensors and estimate the changes that are taking place, and 3) the capability to generate autonomous behavior which enables the robot to make predictions from gathered information and autonomously determine the next behavior without being controlled by an operator."

Honda robotics is not the only company doing research on robotic technology and Artificial Intelligence(AI). The US Army, IBM, MIT, etc. all are still making great strides in the AI space. It is great to still see research and developments being done continuously because intelligent machines are something that can always be improved upon. AI is only as good as the brain that makes it function. 

SICURA(TM) is noHold's latest knowledge management(KM) platform. We have enhanced our platform to provide our clients with multiple tools and applications that will in turn benefit their consumers. This platform coupled with a Virtual Agent gives companies the ability to deliver answers to the questions they have.

 KM is part of a bigger picture and can benefit from utilizing Artificial Intelligence. Each year, AI is making significant advancements. IBM's Watson was able to compete and win in the game show Jeopardy, beating out 2 other humans. (This was back in 2011 as well.) 

Have you seen ASIMO in action? Do you think Virtual Assistants will soon employ factors mandatory to be classified as an autonomous machine such as external recognition capability, or capability to make intelligent predictions? 

Happy Throwback Thursday!