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Posts Tagged ‘Honda Asimo’

KAIST’s HUBO shows off some newfound dexterity, hides emotions behind ill-fitting motorcycle helmet

Sometimes when we see the seemingly slow advance of Honda’s ASIMO, the inherent limitations of WowWee toys, or the purposefully limited one-off research projects of universities, we start to give up hope of being super best pals with a humanoid robot this century; hope of partaking in whimsical 80s movie hijinks, hand-in-metal-hand. This little video of the Korean Institute of Advanced Science and Technology’s recent advances on its HUBO project therefore serves as a bit of a “hope refresher,” allowing us to once again re-imagine those aforementioned scenes of whimsy with a metallic bot that can handle a sword and walk at an almost-useful pace, while inexplicably wearing a smallish, visored helmet. Sure, there’s a long way to go, but we’d just like to say that when the robot apocalypse doesn’t happen and we realize how much we really have in common with these machines we’ve built to look like us, that somewhere in late 2009 this video helped us keep on believing.

Continue reading KAIST’s HUBO shows off some newfound dexterity, hides emotions behind ill-fitting motorcycle helmet

Filed under: Robots

KAIST’s HUBO shows off some newfound dexterity, hides emotions behind ill-fitting motorcycle helmet originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 15 Nov 2009 01:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Honda’s U3-X Personal Mobility Device is the Segway of unicycles

Yeah, we’ve seen a self-balancing unicycle before, but the brand new U3-X from Honda takes it to another level. A creepy-sterile, awesomely futuristic Honda level, to be precise. What makes the U3-X particularly interesting is it has the regular large wheel of a unicycle, but that wheel is actually made up of several small wheels in a series, which can rotate independently, meaning that the device can go forward, backward, side-to-side and diagonally, all being controlled with a simple lean. Honda credits its ASIMO research for this multi-directional capability, though we’re not sure we see it — ASIMO is biped, after all — but far be it from us to discredit an excuse to keep up the good work on the ASIMO front. Right now the “experimental model” of the U3-X gets a single hour of battery and weighs under 22 pounds, with a seat and foot rests that fold into the device for extra portability. No word of course on when the thing might make it to market, but Honda plans to show it off next month at the Tokyo Motor Show. A devastatingly short video of the U3-X in action is after the break.

Continue reading Honda’s U3-X Personal Mobility Device is the Segway of unicycles

Filed under: Transportation

Honda’s U3-X Personal Mobility Device is the Segway of unicycles originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 24 Sep 2009 00:27:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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