Taken from Asimo's performance at 1 Utama on 14-November.
Some might laugh at Asimo's odd gait in its physical movements. But Asimo is far from a joke. The average Joe public with an IQ of 100 will not appreciate the complexity of designing a control system for biped robots, let alone a humanoid variation of it. Plus one that can adapt to variable walking / running speeds. The subject of bipedal walking robots is so vast that it is a branch of mechanical-electronic engineering research topic on its own. It does somewhat makes you appreciate this gift from God - to be able to walk upright. It is a seemingly simply task that we take granted, but truth is that even with all the best brains in this world working together, it is still not possible to replicate the simple act of walking / running upright.
But Honda is a car manufacturer, is it not? So why is it in the business of building R2-D2s? The answer for the short term would be for a branding effort - to show a can-do spirit within Honda, that Honda has the technology and the means to realise a sci-fi dream. It is also indirectly implying that the company is thinking and will continue to exist long into the future. The longer term answer, and the bigger picture would be that Honda is preparing for a post-car era. Face it, cars are not going to be here forever. At least not as we know it. Increasingly tough emission regulations, energy supply (fossil fuel) concerns, rapid urbanization and cramped mega-cities are making cars less and less of an ideal choice for private transportation. Also, many governments especially those from the EU bloc are blaming cars for every other environmental woes. Cars have been made the scapegoat and is now public enemy No.2 after terrorism. The previous Mayor of London Ken Livingstone is a particularly vocal critic of cars, especially SUVs and carbon belching supercars. Even Germany, a nation famed for its automotive prowess and its speed-limit free autobahns are starting to impose speed limits and German automakers have been "nudged" by German policymakers to start pulling their act together to reduce emissions.
While European companies very much focused on alternative energy powertrains, Japanese automakers have to deal with a couple more problems that are more prevalent in Japanese societies - cramped mega-cities and an aging population. Japan is home to many of the most densely populated cities in the world. It's birth rate is one of the lowest, if not the lowest. The low birth rate and extremely high number of single young people means that Japan is facing an impending social security crisis, where there will not be enough young people in the workforce to pay for the pension benefits of the older population. But that's another story. The car market in Japan is already very saturated, and the relatively small number of young people in Japan don't consider owning a car to be cool anymore, despite the proliferation of Initial D manga and the impression that movies like Fast and Furious Tokyo Drift paints. Car license costs a bomb in Japan, plus you would have to bid to buy for a "parking space" to own a car in Japan, this is on top of the vehicle's price. With an ultra-efficient public transport owning a car doesn't really make much sense for many urban Japanese. The reality is that car sales in domestic Japan and street racing peaked decades ago. Cars are very down the list of items to buy in a typical Japanese youth's top ten list of things to buy. If you are carmaker in Japan you would be worried that there will not be enough drivers in the future to buy cars.
This explains Honda's investment in the Asimo. The senior citizens of Japan, who will form a majority of the population will need another form of transport. And there will be burgeoning demand for devices to aid old people in their daily lives. Already we can see some of the technology that went into Asimo is trickling down into lower profile appliances, like the walking assistance device below.
Image from Wired.It is also being used to reduce fatigue and physical stress of its plant workers. The plant workers above are part of the paint quality inspection process. Their job requires a lot of physical movements, including bending over and squatting. Having a device like this would take a lot of load off their poor joints. Beyond a manufacturing plant, such devices can easily find favour among older folks. It sure beats a walking stick in terms of functionality.
Honda is not alone on humanoid robot research. As mentioned earlier, the problem of cramped megacities and aging population affects all Japanese automarkers. You wouldn't expect Toyota, Japan's largest automaker to be oblivious to the issue don't you? In fact, consistent with Toyota's more conservative corporate culture, it has embarked on a far more practical but less flashy personal mobility project. Over the years Toyota has introduced variations of such works - including the MechWarrior robot-like version called i-foot and a souped-up electric wheelchair like contraption called i-unit that can be reclined for stability in high speed drives or remain upright for easier socialising with other i-units. Thee latest is a more fancy version of Segway, called the i-real.
The video below a demonstration by Toyota during the 2005 Aichi Expo in Japan.
The i-foot is supposed to aid older folks in getting around while the other concepts are designed for use in a futuristic eco-friendly mega-city. Unlike Honda's Asimo, for some reason Toyota have not really promoted any of concepts outside Japan. Which is a shame because the i-foot is seriously uber cool!
This is an embarrassing moment for Asimo. But this was many years ago, glitches that are common for any ground breaking technology and I am sure Asimo functions better now. I am no robotics expert but I am guessing that the calibration was out. Asimo is not compeletely autonomous, in the sense that it is unable to respond to changes in the environment. It needs to follow a pre-defined path. If you are able to have a look Asimo's stage from the top, you will notice black marker tapes around Asimo's "walk-zone." I suppose these are for the imaging (I am guessting IR) sensors to determine Asimo's path and destination.
Related link: Autonomous self-driving cars - DARPA Urban Challenge
0 comments:
Post a Comment