Honda asimo 2017

Abstract

Honda has created a personal home robot that they call ASIMO. ASIMO stands for Advanced Step in Innovative Mobility. Their mission for creating a robot was to be able to assist the elderly and people with disabilities in doing things like daily chores. With this goal Honda wanted to create a robot with viable mobility that would allow it to help and live in harmony with people. To do so they needed it to be able to function in society, move like a human, maneuver around obstacles, and have the ability to walk/run on uneven grounds, clime up and down stairs, hold trays, and many other tasks needed to live in harmony with humans. Honda took 19 years to develop ASIMO and it has since then impacted many areas of human life, it’s impacted the way we think, the ways we live, and other aspects of our lives that we may not realize. The development of robotics has raised some ethical issues such as the use of robots in the military, robots in the workforce, potential invasion of privacy, and questions about robot rights. Honda’s ASIMO is drawing attention and provoking potential controversies due to it’s immersive and abrupt presence in the owners life.

Table of Contents

Abstract 2

Table of Contents 3

Honda’s ASIMO 4

Historical Timeline and Predecessor Assessment 6

Historical Timeline 6

Technology Influence 7

Model E0 7

Model E1, E2, and E3 7

Model E4, E5, and E6 8

Model P1, P2, and P3 9

ASIMO 10

Analysis of Impact 11

Social Impact 11

Cultural Impact 17

Political Impact 20

Economic Impact 21

Environmental Impact 24

Ethical Implications 25

Advancements in Robotics 25

Military use 26

Robot rights 28

Robots in the workforce 29

Privacy 31

References 34

Honda’s ASIMO

If you are not up to date on the new emerging technologies, like self-driving cars, you may not have heard about Honda’s robot that they call ASIMO. Robots have, for a long time now, been a discussion and interest to many people. Many people want robots to help them do things like daily chores, or assisting people in need, such as the elderly or disabled. ASIMO can do exactly that, it is designed to "duplicate the complexities of human motion and genuinely help people”(Honda, 2016). One issue to this astonishing technology is its potential problems such as bugs and glitches. This is a huge issue when developing new technology and could cause people to worry about their privacy or cause them to fear potential harm to them and their family. Honda’s ASIMO is drawing attention and provoking potential controversies due to it’s immersive and abrupt presence in the owners life.

ASIMO resembles a small child standing at 4 feet tall, is very durable, and is lightweight. This robot has a backpack, which is where the battery is stored and it, shows three lights indicating battery status. He is highly intelligent and is able to do simple functions such as "turn on a light switch, open doors, carry objects and push carts”(Honda, 2016). ASIMO’s has opposable thumbs similar to humans, which helps him carry odd-shaped objects; “he can carry 10 oz. in each hand, and up to 2.2 lbs. using both hands”(Honda, 2016). It has a "Kinesthetic Force Sensor that senses the direction and detects people's movements through visual sensors in its head and force in its wrists to accommodate the person it is attending”(Honda, 2016). This allows him to do humanly actions like shaking peoples hands, freely moving carts, and is able to synchronize with a person to accurately receive or hand over trays without spilling. ASIMO can achieve stable running, without slipping, and take on complex tasks such as going up or down stairs or navigating a slope. He is highly responsive allowing for flexible and rapid movements while identifying obstacles and then selecting a different route to prevent collisions, without stopping or guidance from someone. He can even detect obstacles that he cannot see due to his sensors. This new technology has amazing features that allow it to "move to an indicated location, recognize hand movements, and distinguish between registered faces”(Honda, 2016). For these specific features he can perform actions such as, “recognizing when it’s name is called, and turn to face the source of the sound; looking at the face of the person speaking, and respond; as well as, recognizing sudden, unusual sounds, such as that of a falling object or a collision, and face in that direction”(Honda, 2016). Overall this robot is fully designed to help people around the house that can be extremely helpful for the elderly or disabled.

As incredible and helpful this robot sounds, there is a lot of controversy about letting robots into our homes. Most people that are resistant to home robots are scared of robots functioning out of control and turning on the owners. This fear is mainly due to Hollywood movies depicting robots as helpful creations that malfunction and become harmful, such as the terminator and I robot where one day the robots are under control and doing what it is suppose to do then, what seams to be out of nowhere, start to turn on the people who created them. ASIMO's eyes are cameras that use Facial Recognition Technology (FRT). This allows him to recognize a persons face and biometric profile that is as unique as a fingerprint. For this reason some consumers might find this to be invasive as they would always have a camera on them, developing paranoia that a hacker could hack into this program and then would be able to spy on them. Though this is a valid concern it may also help in cases where a camera is needed or may be helpful. For example, if someone broke into your home while you are sleeping and AMISO was there to see the intruder then his FRT could be used to identify the intruder. With this emerging technology, if the robot is used to help elders, then a feature where emergency services can be contacted immediately if the robot detects there is something wrong with that person could save their life. Accordingly, there are many concerns for this emergent technology that is causing resistance and controversies of the security to allow this robot in their home.

Historical Timeline and Predecessor Assessment
Honda wanted to make an innovative robot that could work and function in society. Under the history section of the companies website it describes the development of ASIMO. It’s goal and mission of the project, as they state on their company website, was to "create a robot that has viable mobility that would allow it to help and live in harmony with people”(Honda, 2017). Honda’s robot that they call ASIMO is designed to help people do things like daily chores, or assisting people in need, such as the elderly or disabled. They wanted to make a humanoid robot that could do the same simple function has a human. They quickly found out that the simple functions we do were not so simple to recreate, as they first had to discover how to get the robot to walk. Then with the concept the robot would have to know how to maneuver around obstacles, clime up and down stairs, and walk on uneven ground, which is why their first realization was that it would have to have two legs to achieve these goals. With Honda’s ambitious goals the development of ASIMO has a long history that started from the creation of a two-legged robot.

Macintosh HD:Users:Stephanie:Desktop:ASIMO_Timeline.jpgHistorical Tim