ASIMO/Humanoid Robots/CoR-Lab Robots

Humanoids in general:

• Q: When will humanoids be on the market ?
  A: For full body humanoids of human size that will take at least 15 years or longer. Small humanoids of (small) kid size are already available.
• Q: What will they cost ?
  A: Will likely first be “lifestyle” products, cost e.g. as much as a car. A small humaniod e.g. from Aldebaran robotics costs about 10.000 EUR, even smaller ones that are more toys can cost much less.
• Q: Will robots substitute caretakers for the elderly?
  A: No, they will rather be partners and helpers.
• Q: When will we see other cognitive technology products on the market ?
  A: Cognitive technology alread enters mass markets, e.g. in digital cameras, navigation devices, multi-media cellphone etc. It will enter production within the next few years.
• Q: When will robots be truely intelligent ?
  A: We will experience surprises, because the technology rapidly develops. But what is "true" intelligence ?
• Q: Why the humanoid appearence, what is it good for?
  A: Humans accept them more easily as partners and behave towards humanoids like towards children, because both have limited cognitive capabilities.
   

ASIMO:

• Q: Are there ASIMOs in Bielefeld at CoR-Lab ?
  A: There were two ASIMO at CoR-Lab from 2007-2012 according to a five-year research agreement. The have been returned to Honda in October 2012.
• Q: What did Bielefeld pay for the ASIMOs, what does an ASIMO cost?
  A: Invaluable, you can not buy it, you need to get it.
• Q: Why did CoR-Lab get the ASIMOs ?
  A: Because of Bielefeld's excellence in interdisciplinary research and long term cooperation with the Honda Research Institute GmbH, Offenbach.
• Q: What did CoR-Lab do with the ASIMOs?
  A: Make them more intellingent by teaching them to learn and by integration of capabilities like speech, vision, and movement. We start with transfering existing results like e.g. the speech gesture integration of MAX.
• Q: How many ASIMO robots exist ?
  A: About 60, most of them are in Japan at Honda Research.
• Q: How much does an ASIMO weigh ? How tall is ASIMO ?
  A: It has 52 kg weight and about 150 cm height.
• Q: Which sensors does ASIMO have ?
  A: The ASIMO research platform can sense forces from the gound, the position of the body, and the joints. It has cameras for visual processing and microphones for audition.
• Q: Can ASIMO appear at my birthday, abitur celebration, company jubilee, publicity event ?
  A: No. ASIMO is in Bielefeld exclusively for research and may not appear outside the lab. Show events with ASIMO can be staged only through a professional Honda team located in Brussel.
• Q: Is it possible to visit ASIMO in the lab ?
  A: No. The ASIMO have been returned to Honda. And there was no public access to the lab as long as they were present.
• Q: Does CoR-Lab receive a successor of ASIMO ?
  A: Currently, there is nothing like a "successor" of ASIMO from Honda. However, CoR-Lab still works with iCub and Nao robots and receives in July 2013 a COMAN (COMpliant huMANoid), the newest walking humanoid through a project.

Other CoR-Lab Robots:

• Q: What kind of robots does CoR-Lab have access to ?
  A: Besides ASIMO, projects of CoR-Lab work with anthopomorphic hands, torso robots, mobile platforms, and the humanoid robot iCub. CoR-Lab also is in command of a new prototype of a 7-DOF professional automation robot developed by the DLR and produced by Kuka.
• Q: I have seen the Bionic Handling assistant at CoR-Lab, is that possible ?
  A: Yes, CoR-Lab has one of the few of this trunk-like robots (Rüssel) bought from FESTO. Currently, CoR-Lab is the only group capable of controlling the BHA, see the Bielefeld video channels.
• Q: Does CoR-Lab own these robots ?
  A: Partially. Some mentioned platforms belong to the research groups of Prof. Ritter (anthropomorphic hands) and Prof. Sagerer (iCub, Flobi-head) at the Bielefeld Faculty of Technology. CoR-Lab projects cooperate to get access. The Kuka LWR, the BHA (Rüsselroboter) and the COMAN are owned by CoR-Lab.
• Q: What is COMAN ?
  A: A new humanoid robot with springs in most joints, which makes it compliant to physical impact. You can hit and kick it, and it will not fall down.
• Q: What is the humanoid iCub ?
  A: iCub is a child robot developed in European projects and funded by the EU. It is the European reference platform for developmental robotics and is able to crawl, grasp, move the whole body, but can not walk. COMAN is a successor of the iCub.