HN Reader

I remember learning about Asimo in grade school. It felt like the future! Robots would be assisting me in daily life when I grew up.

Then like the space shuttle, it just disappeared. I feel like there was Asimo.... and then nothing for decades until now.

Sure I can have a robot do my dishes, but it's still more efficient to just use a dishwasher appliance.

We've certainly come a long way from Asimo to robots like Boston Dynamic's Atlas doing parkour and backflips, but Asimo was SOTA when it came out - back in the day I took a trip from NJ to Philly to see him being demonstrated at the science museum there, doing things like jogging in a circle or climbing up a set of steps.

Now that the motion part of robotics is pretty much solved, we need grippers and sensors - still being worked on - then enough of a brain to be easily taught new skills and be able to perform them reliably in real-world conditions.

I know I'm going to be downvoted for this, but I have to say that Teslabot shuffling along with what appears to be clenched butt cheeks looks more Asimo era in terms of dynamics than SOTA. It's not even clear if it has dynamic balance or depends on keeping center of mass over its feet.

I saw the Asimo demonstration at the Miraikan in Tokyo (it's not still on but the rest of the museum is great if you are nearby) and I still look back fondly on it today. I saw it too late (2017 and 2019) for it to feel like the future but there was something lovely about how it had a personality and a charm that some of the other robots there.

I still do something I call the "Asimo Walk" (walking with slightly bent knees to take the load off the joints and engage the muscles for support), especially when the tendons around my knee act up.

The only thing I remember ASIMO for, disappointingly, is falling down stairs:

> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTlV0Y5yAww