Are we on the brink of AI? ASIMO Robot

I apologize if this has been posted before. I'm sure you have all heard about ASIMO honda's new cool humanoid robot. What sets ASIMO apart is not only can it identify it's environment and move in a fluid way, but it can also learn and identify objects including those just by comparing them to a similar item. It is a robot that can learn and problem solve and is not restricted to programming alone. This one controls itself (so to speak) and requires no outside assistance.

Here is an older video of one of the older models (Post P3) for those who are not already aware of ASIMO that just shows its physical capabilities. In case the video doesn't show it, it can go up stairs too.



After they designed to move they needed to figure out how to make it identify and maneuver through it's environment (being able to weigh both the risks and the most efficient route) without pre-programming or a puppeteer on a joy stick.



Now the scary part. They taught it to learn.



A side question would be why does it raise its hand almost as if it's curious.


[edit on 13-3-2009 by DaMod]

[edit on 13-3-2009 by DaMod]

reply to post by DaMod


I can't believe no one responded to this. This thing is nifty no?

To answer the question, no where near. Right now it's just being programmed to do those things. AI doesn't have to be incorporated into a robot either. It really needs to be developed away from robots because the mechanical actions aren't that important. After you had true AI, you could put it into any medium and it would basically instantly be able to function at 100%.

Yeah but the importance here is that they are implicating some form of intelligence (not true AI yet) to a machine. The first steps imo.

While I agree that AI and robotics don't have to be related, I think you're going to see them integrated simply because the teams working in both fields want to do so. It's simply the cool factor. Call it the God complex. Not satisfied with simple reproduction, man strives to create "life". I this case, AI integrated into robotics.

Very cool stuff.

reply to post by DaMod


Whilst i find the ability of this robot to recognise a small selection of objects truly amazing i'm afraid it is far away from actual intelligence, it's not even a spark of it. If the thing had looked at the toy robot and said "that's me" then we'd have something profound.

The robot is still following a very basic string of code. Well the code is probably millions of lines long but the point is that it still has no imagination, it's following set rules, basic guides. Still it's a very cool little robot and i continue to follow it's progress.

Oh and James May has done some really excellent programs like this

The Chairs are what got me. It identified something it's never seen before as a chair because it's qualities qualify it as such. So it does not only rely on what it's seen.

I work for A.H.M. and i can tell you that asimo is really cool.
Its been in the making for 30 plus years. im going to go on the corporate site and see if i can link anything here.
Honda is a very smart corporation, and asimo has been around for about 12 years , but only in lower forms.
What you see in these vids are the highly developed asimo's, not the ones they use in the parts warehouses to pull and ship orders, but they run on the same principal.
In my opinion, i dont think its very close to a.i., just a highly evolved robot.

As I agree, you have to notice some things. How the machine acts and moves, uses its arms, searches the room that sort of thing is pretty uncharacteristic of machines. Plus it changed its behavior, at first when it was shown the robot it gave a standard machine response "say yes if it is correct say no if it's not" but then when it is shown the mini cooper it doesn't ask that question it simply just gets it which makes it appear to go outside the boundaries of a pre-programmed response. I have seen many robots that are designed to perform different tasks, calculate different things and so on. I have never seen a bot like this, or even close for that matter. It is programmed to interpret something machines don't really do. You cant really say it wouldn't have identified the robot as itself unless it was a miniature of asimo and therefore it could identify it as itself. I'm not saying its an emotional machine, but we gave it some form of interpretive intelligence which to me is enough to say this is the beginnings of AI. Either way it is without a doubt the most advanced robot on the planet and a glimpse into the future.

world.honda.com...
This is about all i could find.
Im in the automotive arm of a.h.m., and dont really have any special access.

Great info there. I think everyone should follow the progress of this type of bot. Definitely a giant step for mankind. Who knows 10 years from now we might see these little buggers everywhere.

Im sure we will.
The parts warehouse where all our local dealers gather their stuff from is partiall run by lower forms of asime, they follow little magnetic strips in the floor, holding all kinds of info.
I hope we get em here in the shop to do some of the crappier work we get!

Yeah that, and I was also thinking maybe send these things to more hostile environments to explore. Would make a more efficient probe methinks.

Nowhere near AI,movement via robotics yes,but AI is actually very simple as you dont need to program it to do anything other than learn from its evironment(exactly how humans learn),AI in the future? most definetly, within 20 years as long as there are no crazy Chrisitans or Muslims trying to hinder progress expect AI on the level of a human.It will be a great step forward for mankind.

Yeah, lotsa good stuff.
Fires, hostage sit, things of that nature.

It is programmed to learn from it's environment. And besides saying AI would require no pre-programming at all would be foolish. You cant just sit a quantum computer on the floor and say "Learn you hunk of bolts!". It wouldn't do anything but sit there. Allowing the computer to program itself and become aware of its environment via that programming is exactly what they are trying to accomplish with asimo. They programmed it to make judgment calls on different aspects of it's environment including the path in which to move or whether an object performs the same function as another via its qualities all by itself without previous knowledge or programming of that object. I never said this is AI. I'm just point out that this is the beginnings of it, the first steps if you will. They even point out that it learns like a child. It can anticipate predict and most importantly program itself. A start, that's all I'm saying!!

[edit on 16-3-2009 by DaMod]

it's awesome to see bi-ped research and development still going on! they are getting smoother all the time with the robot's walking and running. (still a little flat footed so to speak) -- looks like the robot needs to go to the restroom really bad.

awesome stuff from japan.

you know, i was just about to say this is the sanest thread ive been to,
but it wouldnt be a thread without a discussion.
True, its close to a.i.
Very close, and i cant think of any other robot, or machine that has made this much progress towards it.

Its still nowhere near the sort of AI we are thinking of though,ASIMO can walk the same set of stairs 30 times and still topple over walking up them the next time as if its never went up them before.In one of its exhibition it walked out on stage and fell over,even though it had performed it numerous times before hand...yes humans still have brainfarts and mess up walking up stairs aswell,but its far far far less likely to happen.Which obviously shows its inept ability to learn from mistakes or previous memories...like i said,i think the ability for a computer to learn is actually very simple in programming terms ...but very very hard to actually find the code that would allow it to.

The ASIMO in the third vid (as they pointed out) is a more advanced cousin of the one you are talking about falling down the stairs. Also I would like to point out that the video of asimo falling down the stairs was before they programmed it to predict it's environment.

[edit on 16-3-2009 by DaMod]