Happiness in slavery

Asimo hasn't been in the news lately, so I thought we'd check up. Seeing him over summer break at Disneyland was the highlight of my trip back home. He is one of the most integrated and well-developed humanoid robots walking the earth today, and really serves as the most well-known of the celebots. He popped up recently on my AI watch as Honda plans to integrate some of his sensory-motor components into their vehicles.

Bloomberg.com: Honda Will Apply Asimo's Robot Technology to Enhance Car Safety

The new Asimo, weighing 54 kilograms, can run at a speed of 6 kilometers an hour, double the speed of its previous version, Honda said. The robot, one of which is on permanent display at Honda's head office in Tokyo, is used as a receptionist for visiting guests.

The robot can walk alongside a guest, hold the guest's hand, carry a serving tray or push a tea trolley. The robot is equipped with a memory and intelligence system equivalent to a three-year- old child and its strength and physical abilities are equal to a 10-year old, Honda said.

Asimo is definitely the torchbearer of robothood, having performed all sorts of diplomatic functions like meeting heads of state and opening the trading day on the NYSE. His integration with vehicle manufacturing is well appreciated here, obviously.

On a side note, in looking around for info about Asimo, I stumbled upon the Robocup:

The ultimate goal of the RoboCup project is by 2050, develop a team of fully autonomous humanoid robots that can win against the human world champion team in soccer.

Robocup has already held the first ever humanoid-only soccer game using teams of Robosapiens.

Maybe playing chess with Deep Blue isn't really playing a game with a computer, but I challenge anyone to deny that robots playing a team sport like soccer aren't really participating in the game.

***UPDATE*** You definitely want to check this out.