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ROBOT AMBASSADOR 111

the world are coming to associate Honda with not only cars but also
nimble, even cute, robotic emissaries of the future. The company
also has reported that many graduate engineers have cited Asimo as
a reason why they would like to work for Honda.

Future Helpers

Honda’s development of Asimo illustrates the orientation of
many Japanese companies to long-term research and development.
Currently, the practical uses for an Asimo robot are limited. Hirose
acknowledges freely that it may be many years before Honda’s
robotics research will contribute substantially to the company’s
bottom line.
Nevertheless, Hirose believes that there will eventually be consid-
erable demand for robots in settings such as hospitals, assisted living
centers, and even homes. Hirose suggested to Asiaweek that a future
descendant of Asimo will be “As you like him to be—your friendly,
helpful worker. I’d like it to move and lift things, get them to you,
freeing people from some chores.” A decade or more in the future,
Hirose believes that the helper robots will be able to understand a
wide range of instructions in ordinary language. Even though there
are no plans to give Asimo a human face and humanlike expres-
sions, people may form attachments to the robots not unlike the
bond formed between a person and a guide or helper dog today.

Other Approaches

In addition to corporations such as Honda and Sony, university
researchers have also been taking new robotic “steps.” For exam-
ple, researchers at Cornell University, Massachusetts Institute
of Technology, and the Delft University of Technology in the
Netherlands are working together on a new approach to robot
walkers that promises to make them more efficient.
When a human or animal walks downhill, a burst of energy is used
only for the initial push of the leg against the ground, with momen-
tum and gravity doing the rest. Robots such as Asimo must apply
additional power in order to control precisely where the step lands.