Since the arrival of SHAKEY in 1970,
robots have infiltrated almost every
aspect of our daily lives, from manufacturing to communications to
cars and even to our own pockets.
But, until SHAKEY, all forms of robot
are believed to have been passive;
an empty shell that - regardless
of its design - was still redundant
without human manipulation. The
essence inaugurated in SHAKEY
has grown through numerous different homunculi to, for example,
Honda’s “ASIMO” (Advanced Step in
Innovative Mobility) in 2000,6 and
beyond through numerous other
incarnations.
It would seem that there are numerous ways of defining what a robot
actually is, but it is undoubtedly the
anthropomorphic humanoid robot the active robot - that has the most
potential for future development,
and if this is true, the transition
from passive to active begs the
question...
ASIMO, an is a humanoid robot designed
and developed by Honda
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