Honda's robot ready for office chores

A polite receptionist, Asimo also can push a cart and deliver a tray of drinks.
Photos: Asimo learns new tricks

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[Hallie Miles]

Now! Now!! Now!!!

I've been watching these little guys for a few years now, and I want one! How much?

[Joe Blow]

As They Say, If You Have to Ask ...

how much, you can't afford one. Hence, the leasing deal, just like the GM EV-1 electric cars - they were too expensive for the market, so they tried to soften the pain by offering them for lease, first, since people are generally stupid, and don't think in terms of total cost of ownership.

The reason the Japanese are so hot to develop humanoid robots (as opposed to embedded systems - the average car now has over 40 microprocessors in it) is that their population is going to drop in half within the next 30 ~ 40 years, due to many Japanese young women delaying marriage and childbirth until their early 30s (if they ever get married and have children - there's not much for them to look forward to once they submit to an unhappy life, having a husband working endless hours and possibly getting some on the side, while the women are expected to stay home and be good little wives and mothers, and doing all of the literally dirty work). There are already remote villages that are becoming ghost towns in Japan, because the younger people have all moved to the cities in order to go to school and work, and the older people have died off or are in nursing homes, or living with younger family members in the cities. Asimo and his descendants are being groomed to be the Houseboys of the Future, at least in Japan, to free up the remainder of the younger population from having to do boring, menial tasks associated with taking care of old people, so that they can perform boring, menial tasks in factories (like fixing assembly line robots) and offices (replace the guy who spends all his time yakking at the water cooler, or posting his tripe on-line ... HEY, WAIT A MINUTE ... !!! ;)

Asimo and his current brethren are pretty useless, other than for PR purposes, primarily because they require way too much power and can store relatively little compared with their power needs. They might as well use car batteries for feet, which solves the center of gravity and balance problem without the fancy gyros, muscular actuators, and processing electronics (but, still does little about the power usage inefficiencies). Even if they could recharge every few minutes, the electrical power consumption in cities would outstrip our current generation and distribution capacity (we have enough trouble powering all of our current stationary appliances, much less a world of walking, talking ones). The only way to address this for the foreseeable future (short of a passive nuclear-powered thermocouple electrical generation system, which would still be pretty anemic) would be to use an internal combustion engine running inside each robot. You can quickly imagine what it will be like bringing all the sounds and smells of a busy freeway into an enclosed space!

Even if the power consumption weren't an issue, there is still the problem of mass production of these things, which require tolerances and dexterity far beyond any robotic assembly line of today or in the future on the horizon, which would be the logical way to build them. You wouldn't want error-prone (compared to computers and robots) and jealous human factory workers being able to sabotage the robots, especially with hidden bugs or time-bombs when they realize that the robots are eventually going to take their jobs away, too. Although we tend to be too optimistic in the short term, and too pessimistic in the long term, when it comes to predicting the capabilities and impacts of technology, I'm going with Murphy on this one, and guesstimating that it will be decades, if ever, before useful humanoid robots will be capable, efficient, economical, and safe enough to operate more-or-less autonomously to any level of real benefit in terms of total cost of ownership. Besides, what happens when you're completely dependent on your robot, and it "has fallen and it can't get up?", never mind taken over your bank account and spent everything in it on all the Mobil One synthetic oil it can drink??? ;)

What would be a reasonable price for an Asimo today, not taking into account the development cost, and ignoring the Gee-Whiz factor of being the first on your block to own one? I might pay a few hundred dollars, since a Robosapien v.1 now goes for about $40 on sale, and does about ten percent of what Asimo can do, and based on the expected life-cycle cost of at least $100 in power, parts, and repair labor costs each year.

How much would you pay for Asimo's pretty limited abilities, and be honest?

All the Best,
Joe Blow and His Mighty Robot, AsiBlow!

[rfelgueiras]

Freeky?

? but flashes of Aniematrix keep popping in my head. Cool but
scary at the same time.

[ccisat1dxj]

The first wave of robots

Technologies greatest aspirations always come in a form that we least expected. With robots the first wave was VACUUM CLEANERS! and they work great. Now we need one for dishes!

Love the name

Here's hoping they continue to develop the product line until it becomes a truly fitting tribute to Isaac Asimov.

[Inetsec]

Rosie the Robot - (The Jetsons)

As soon as this thing learns to vaccuum, wash windows, wash dishes, and clean the yard - I want one.

[emcourtney]

domestic help wanted

I'd buy a robot that could operate a washer, dryer and fold
laundry.

[Thorax232]

What will the poor low-lifes do?

If we start using robots for all the simple tasks what will be the starting jobs for people? There's already a problem with unemployment and with robots doing all the starting jobs how are those unemployed people supposed to get their start. I guess we could use them as butlers and assistants but that's where it should stop. You can't replace too many human jobs with robots. Maybe they could be put in a room as backup in case too many people call in sick or you can't find anyone you want to hire, just use them for temporary jobs because us humans need to work for money.....unless the robots did the jobs for us and brought home money while humans sat around eating cheetos getting fatter and fatter.....that would truly be great.....of course that would makes it easier for the robots to take over.....either way were screwed....all well might as well enjoy it while it lasts.

[winston_delaespriella]

Work for money ???

Sorry for you, that only use the work to get money.
The best quality of life can be achieved when we work in something that we like and enjoy.
If the hardest works are done by machines then the humans can dedicate their lifes to think (somenthing the robots can't) and find better opportunities to enhance their quality of life and help others to grow.
The humans are in the earth to think. The machines can do the hard work.

[Blito]

Robot more of an extension then a replacement

No, as a scientist, I know we wont be outmoded because we will have to intigrate into a data environmnet. We will live forever and organics will still be a large part of life. Things still decompose so a robot its limited as it also would need are wider range of emotions that require more then just plastic. So in any case we will evolve but not too much like into a cold machine. Think of the robot as more an extension of us rather than a firm replacement so your right in your cations.

[Blito]

Danger Will Robinson: Prepare for the lawsuits

No, I wouldnt trust this thing around me in an office. Why is everyone so quick to embrace? In 2 seconds it could turn on you and break your skull or even worse put together a bomb etc. How far will we go? With all of the Viruses and computer breakdowns how can people expect everything to be Rosy cozy with this type of machine? There are bound to be a few bad accidents and insuracne companies simply won't cover it.
Also it's very hard for a person to do really bad things at a location for fear of death or imprisonment but with a robot some dude in his underwear can really do allot of damage.

I would say there has to be certain limits on technology. Anyone see the movies Runaway, IRobot or The Terminator? Robots are ok but not on this scale.