ASIMO – the dancing, talking, painting, futsal-playing robot
December 2, 2008 4:21 pm Diana's Diary, Entertainment, News, Technology
He walks. He runs. And perhaps most importantly, he inspires us all to dream. Meet ASIMO – the dancing, talking, batik-painting and futsal-playing robot created by Honda’s Research & Development Wako Fundamental Technical Research Centre in Tokyo, Japan. ASIMO is the acronym for Advanced Step in Innovative Mobility and was born on 31st October 2000. The first time he came to Malaysia was in 2003 and recently was spotted in Queensbay Mall recently in 2008 to thrill thousands of spectators especially children.
Meet ASIMO, Honda’s humanoid robot who charmed thousands during a roadshow at a shopping mall in Bayan Baru, Penang over the weekend. When he came on stage, the 1.3m and 54kg ASIMO greeted the audience and proceeded to introduce himself. After that, he drew gasps of awe and loud clappings as he demonstrated his abilities.
“I can run like you too! Wanna see?” he teased. After counting down from three to one and Go, Asimo started running on stage, drawing loud cheers from the crowd.
He then proceeded to dance and ask the crowd, “Why don’t you dance with me today?” Children eagerly put up their hands to dance with the cute and cheeky robot. After dancing, Asimo showed off a recently acquired skill – batik painting.
For his final act, Asimo demonstrated his futsal skills by kicking a ball on stage. Then, playing the role of a courteous waiter, he served drinks to some lucky people in the audience. According to Wikipedia, there are 46 Asimo units in existence as of 2007. Each cost less than RM3.8 million to manufacture and some units are available to be hired out for about RM630,000 per year.
This was a chance in a lifetime and I was glad to be at the right time to witness Asimo in the shopping mall over the weekend. It is better than taking photos so many Christmas trees around December and makes an exciting post to my blog. Though I was in KL recently, I did not go to Sunway Pyramid as I grew blase to it with all the Christmas decos. But some suaku blogger love to be there to capture photos for her blog like it was something new.
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Epstreet :
Date: December 7, 2008 @ 11:23 pm
This asimo is really amazing!
Diana :
Date: December 8, 2008 @ 8:07 am
Epstreet: yeah, really amazing.
Michael Yip :
Date: December 8, 2008 @ 9:10 am
Wow, you guys get to be on stage to pose with ASIMO? So jealous, I went for the launch when it was held at 1Utama but wasn’t allowed to get near ASIMO at all. Sigh.
Diana :
Date: December 8, 2008 @ 4:10 pm
Michael: I guess only some lucky families got invited to pose and take photos with Asimo. The crowd was collosal and not everyone could have this opportunity.
shaxx :
Date: December 9, 2008 @ 12:35 am
That is really awesome!
Jayce :
Date: January 5, 2009 @ 2:05 pm
I missed the chance to see it. Got another activity that day.
Diana :
Date: January 5, 2009 @ 5:06 pm
Jayce: nevermind you miss it, can still google around for Youtube movies on Asimo’s capabilities.
Shaxx: yeah.