ASIMO: Our undaunted pursuit in robotics.

The world’s first humanoid took more than 18 years of persistent study, research, trial and error before our engineers achieved the creation of an advanced humanoid robot – today’s ASIMO.

In 1986, the creation of a walking robot began. Early models (E1, E2, E3) focused on developing legs that could simulate the walk of a human. The next series of models (E4, E5, E6) were focused on walk stabilisation and stair climbing. Next, a head, body and arms were added to the robot to improve balance and add functionality.

Our first humanoid robot, P1 was rather rugged at 6' 2" tall, and 386 lbs. P2 improved with a friendlier design, improved walking, stair climbing/descending, and wireless automatic movements. The P3 model was even more compact, standing 5' 2" tall and weighing 287 lbs. Then came ASIMO in October 2000, standing at 4' tall and weighing only 115 lbs.

ASIMO can walk on uneven slopes and surfaces, turn smoothly, climb stairs, reach for and grasp objects, switch lights on and off, and open and close doors. ASIMO can also comprehend and respond to simple voice commands, with the ability to recognise the face of a select group of individuals. ASIMO can also yield to pedestrians in its path until they have cleared.

Today, ASIMO serves as a tour guide in museums and as a greeter at high-tech companies in Japan. In future, ASIMO might help with important tasks like assisting the elderly or a person confined to a bed or a wheelchair, and maybe even dangerous tasks such as fighting fires or cleaning up toxic spills.

We had a dream of building robots. The world thought it was impossible. Years and many challenges later, we proved that the impossible is possible