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Sorry, but you ARE wrong -- robots don't need to "walk perfectly" right now.

Anybots didn't release any information about what they are doing, but based on the video it is clear that they are doing feedback control. I have no idea why it is so wobbly other than the fact that pneumatic actuators are notoriously hard to model and control and thus some kind of overshoot in the controller is to be expected.

ASIMO and every other successful walking robot has to use feedback control for balancing. Open-loop robots will definitely fall down after only a few steps because unmodeled errors build up quickly.

Honda also did not release all the details of their controller, but they do have a few technical papers in robotics conferences. When ASIMO and other ZMP-based humanoids walk, they use a precomputed "walking pattern" as a reference. The pattern specifies the desired location of the ZMP over time.

There is some limited high-level technical info here:

    http://asimo.honda.com/

    http://world.honda.com/ASIMO/technology/walking_02 .html

As the robot walks, the six-axis force/torque sensors in the feet and the gyroscope will allow the robot to estimate the actual ZMP position. The controller will then modify the robot's posture in order to compensate for any errors between the actual and desired ZMP locations. If the controller can keep the error within some reasonable bounds, the trajectory will be dynamically stable and ther robot will not fall down.

By the way, when ASIMO is standing still and the controller is running, if you push on its shoulders or torso, it will resist you. The feedback controller will try to keep the ZMP within the center of the base of support. It moves very smoothly.

Hope this helps to clarify.
-James

Anybots didn't release any information about what they are doing, but based on the video it is clear that they are doing feedback control. I have no idea why it is so wobbly other than the fact that pneumatic actuators are notoriously hard to model and control and thus some kind of overshoot in the controller is to be expected.

ASIMO and every other successful walking robot has to use feedback control for balancing. Open-loop robots will definitely fall down after only a few steps because unmodeled errors build up quickly.

Honda also did not release all the details of their controller, but they do have a few technical papers in robotics conferences. When ASIMO and other ZMP-based humanoids walk, they use a precomputed "walking pattern" as a reference. The pattern specifies the desired location of the ZMP over time.

There is some limited high-level technical info here:

    http://asimo.honda.com/

    http://world.honda.com/ASIMO/technology/walking_02 .html

As the robot walks, the six-axis force/torque sensors in the feet and the gyroscope will allow the robot to estimate the actual ZMP position. The controller will then modify the robot's posture in order to compensate for any errors between the actual and desired ZMP locations. If the controller can keep the error within some reasonable bounds, the trajectory will be dynamically stable and ther robot will not fall down.

By the way, when ASIMO is standing still and the controller is running, if you push on its shoulders or torso, it will resist you. The feedback controller will try to keep the ZMP within the center of the base of support. It moves very smoothly.

Hope this helps to clarify.
-James

http://world.honda.com/news/2006/c061201HondaSolte c/

FTA:

The next-generation solar cell to be produced and sold by Honda Soltec was developed by Honda Engineering Co., Ltd., the production engineering subsidiary of Honda. By using thin film made from a compound of copper, indium, gallium and selenium (CIGS), Honda's next-generation solar cell achieves a major reduction in the amount of energy consumed during the manufacturing process by approximately 50% compared to what is required to produce conventional crystal silicon solar cells. This makes the new solar cell more environmentally-friendly by reducing the amount of CO2 generated even from the production stage.

As a consumer and someone who CAN produce his own hydrogen (Living in South Florida, I certainly do have access to significant amount of solar energy), do I really care how ineffecient splitting water is compared to a perfect solution? I know, I'm an evil SOB for even thinking individuals can tell the oil company AND government to go stick their pricing and taxes where the sun doesn't shine. But the last is what has the leftist in the biggest uproar, hydrogen will mean a shortfall of tax revenues needed to fund their agenda and having independence for individuals of not having the government controling their daily life by yet another means (taxes does indeed control behavior, see sin taxes).

As far as Ford's vehicle, OMG is that damn thing ugly! Compared to Honda http://world.honda.com/fcx/ that thing looks like it should be back in the 1970s. Honda is also working on Home Energy Stations (can't find the latest press release showing what it would look like in a typical garage) with the first version using natural gas (home solar is in developement) that should be going on sale in 08 with the FCX.

Dammy

  I highly doubt the electric car will ever catch on. And Ethanol is idiotic because it reduces a cars mileage. And next year will be the year of the Hydrogen car for the consumers. Gasoline cars will be replaced with Hydrogen cars. Flexfuel is just a fad.

...and you seem to be missing the first two fundamental laws of thermodynamics.

Sorry. I'm not going to be baited into getting mad because of cheap insults like this..

1) (condescending remarks snipped) At least in the US, the electrical generation and distribution capacity is already stretched to the breaking point - so yes, we are sort of at "peak electricity" already. Moreover, the bulk of that electricity is generated by fossil fuels.

"Peak Oil" doesn't mean "we're nearing the limits of what we've already started to tap." It means "We're nearing the limits of what we can tap." The same applies to the necessary notion of "Peak Electricity". For a hydrogen economy to fail, there would have to be no economically viable sources of electricity left. This is not the case. We have hundreds of years of coal in known deposits, and coal exploration has been minimal in the past century because of this. With our current gen of nuclear reactors, we have hundreds of years of nuclear power. Use seawater uranium extraction and breeder reactors, and the amount of available power is effectively unlimited. Wind, solar, hydroelectric, etc are also unlimited use. Power costs may go up, but there is effectively no way for us to run out of electricity.

If you don't think that new power plants get built whenever there's a profit to be made, you have some serious studying to do.

[quote]2) The entropy of an isolated system not in equilibrium will tend to increase over time, approaching a maximum value at equilibrium. This is a fancy way of saying no process can be 100% efficient unless that process is designed to maximize entropy. Using Hydrogen as an intermediate energy carrier is by definition a losing proposition. Any energy source you use to make the hydrogen can be better exploited by using it more directly.[/quote]

And to think that you made fun of my understanding of physics. Look up the Carnot Cycle. Internal combustion engines are subject to it, and it's why they perform so poorly. They're heat engines. Fuel cells are not. Your argument is akin to saying that one should use a dripper hose to transfer water from point A to point B rather than two hoses that only leak slightly at their connectors because, hey, one loss is better than two, right? What matters is *how much* loss is at each stage. Methane reformation is very efficient if you utilize the waste heat. Fuel cells are very efficient. ICEs are not.

Present day methods for reforming natural gas require temperatures in excess of 2000 F. Are you really going to have that equipment in your house?

I think you need to argue with Honda about this one, seing as they already have such a system.

30% efficient gasoline ICE vs. 25% hydrogen engine? Um... duh? 30% > 25%. The gasoline ICE can be retrofitted to run on alcohol. How about a 45% efficient diesel engine and run it off a biodiesel/methanol blend?

(usually more like 40%). Hey, how about a 50% efficient high temperature steam turbine? Or a 60% efficient gas cooled nuclear reactor while you're at it? Diesels aren't used in all vehicles for a reason: they're bulkier, they're less tolerant to outside conditions, they're noiser, they have higher vibrational loads, etc. Yes, this is changing (and there are some good diesel cars on the market), but due to their extreme compression ratios, they'll always be at a disadvantage over ICEs on these fronts.

Biofuels are perfectly reasonable options, although there is some concern about the land needed to produce them (sugarcane used in ethanol is already causing signficant deforestation in some regions of the world, and you get a lot less biodiesel per acre than ethanol. Oh, and methanol is expensive, in case you hadn't checked.).

Your saying "Um?... duh? 30% >= 25%" while ignoring the conditionals put on that 25% (that you have to t

Honda has been working toward better production efficiency for the past few years. http://www.japancorp.net/Article.Asp?Art_ID=11538
and
http://world.honda.com/news/2006/c061201HondaSolte c/

That is 70 miles per kilogram. read http://www.greencarcongress.com/2005/10/hondas_mor e_pow.html and http://world.honda.com/FuelCell/

FTFA: ... I would save enough money to fill up my Accord with premium (instead of regular) ...

Ack. Why would you want to do that? According to Honda's specifications the Accord uses regular. Why would you want to put premium in a car that runs on regular?

The price difference between types of fuels (regular, premium, diesel) isn't something you should consider at the pump, only when buying a vehicle.

Do you know Asimo from Honda?

http://asimo.honda.com/index.asp?bhcp=1

Getting your own pilot's license is a bit of work but easily do-able on your average geek's salary. Then go in on a Cessna with a few friends or join a flying rental club and you've got something that can do the shorter hops easily. It won't be cheaper, but it's not as insanely expensive as most think, and no one will search you or even ask you where you're going (unless you fly through class B or C airspace, and then only in general terms).

Alternately, in a couple years the Very Light Jet (VLJ) market is supposed to take off and offer the kind of services you suggest on a level that an upper-middle-class American can afford, but not yet. Watch Eclipse, Honda, and the others roll out their aircraft and look for the small carriers to use'em.

Why in the world would the "oil companies" give a rat's ass about "man made" global warming in the first place? Demand is not going to go down, supply is limited cuz the tree huggers won't let them drill in new areas, so they are going to make the huge profit regardless on what "scam of the year" folks are believing in.

The only people scared they are going to LOSE money is those bellying up to the government teet for research on global warming. If the public finds out it's junk science made up to scare them into pushing for even more bigger government that will taxe them more, it's adios to that grant money.

For me, I'm waiting on Honda's FCX based vehicle http://world.honda.com/news/2006/4060108FCX/. Not because of the scam of "global warming", because I rather have my independence from big oil and those who think I should be put to death for being a Pagan. Yes, I know it's slow using solar to seperate water into hydrogen and Oxygen, but it's far better then Paying $3.25 @ Gallon with those people making a profit off my misery. And I get to screw the government out of taxes on fuel when I make my own.

  Honda already did this in 2006 models. It's called the iPod Music Link and you control the music from the steering wheel or the audio system. Read their official announcement at Honda.com

Other words, this is not news. Ford is just playing catch up as always. Honda owns the auto industry and is always one step ahead of the others.

It does require the dealer's help

Seems like you ought to be getting much better mileage than that. My Honda Rebel 250cc gets a minimum of 75mpg and if I concentrate (shut the bike off at long redlights/downhills and don't accelerate hard and keep it at or under 55mph) I can hit 105mpg.

Plus it goes 85mph and holds its own on the highway. I've taken mine across the country, Santa Fe to Boston... twice.

Not as safe as an SUV-Tank but some of us have different values. If I'm making the choice to do something dangerous I want the greater risk to be with my own life, not someone elses.

Though, it is neat to see such a toy car. And I would be interested in this little toy as a simple display model. I like the idea of holding tommorrow's future cars now.

However, automakers already have a hydrogen fuel cell car. It's not just an experiment or in progress car. It is a real concept car that is ready for the road. The Honda FCX (The first company to bring us the hybrid with Insight.) announced last January that it will begin production of it's concept car in 3 - 4 years in Japan. Also, they got home fueling stations in the works.

  Many california residents product may seen Honda's working model FCX car driven by many of it's residents. It's been reported around 100 cars and buses. California also has dozen or so fueling stations scattered across LA and SF. NC will also have one built at Camp Pendleton.

I only wish the Communist News Network (CNN) would stop spreading lies and saying Hydrogen cars aren't ready yet. They are here, being used and will be ready for commercialization in 3 - 4 years.

Hey, Mr. Physics:

If you double the available power (which doubling the displacement would not likely do) you are not going to simultaneously double the acceleration, top speed, and useful load. You _may_ be able to double _one_ of these things. Maybe even increase both acceleration and top speed (but not double) with some judicious gearing. Perhaps I'm way off on my math, but wouldn't you need at least 8x the power to double the load, top speed, and acceleration? maybe something like 5x power to do this with a decent gearbox? To double the doubles I think you'd end up needing somewhere like 18x the original power (again assuming you only doubled 2 and got the third for "free" with a good transmission). 18x Power means less than 1/18 Milage. That puts you in the neighborhood of 160 MPG. Would you really get that excited about a single-person vehicle that could achieve 50 or so MPH, got 145MPG and could accelerate fast enough to be safe on the road with other traffic?

If so, try this.

http://world.honda.com/ASIMO/history/

I would imagine that your $732/week, particularly after taxes, buys a lot less than the Indian fellow's $800/month.

Maybe, what's the cost of living like in India?

I looked up the cost of a new Honda Accord here and there, here it's about 18,225 USD*, which is about $20,000, there it's about 15,42,000 Rs, which apparently translates to $37,143.

I also looked at housing costs in Ottawa vs Goa. The average cost of a house in Ottawa is $219,713, while the average cost of a house in Goa appears to be around 55,000 pounds, which is around $113,853.

Finally, I looked at food costs. Various fine dining restaurants here would cost about $50 on average for two people, there it's about 1200 Rs, which is about $29.

Overall, it doesn't appear that $800 in India buys more than $2900 in Canada. If anything, it buys quite a bit less, even if that's 10x the minimum wage compared to only ~2.5x.

* honda.ca uses Flash, and nobody in their right mind would ever install Flash.

Yes: http://world.honda.com/history/challenge/19874ws/i ndex.html

The Honda Prelude had 4WS

Here are the actual videos of ASIMO doing things.
http://world.honda.com/HDTV/ASIMO/tech-recog-mov-o bj-2/

I was looking forward to hydrogen fuel cell vehicles (10+ years from now), but didn't think much of it until I read about Honda's new hydrogen fuel cell. It puts out 100KW of power!

It's incredible to me that a fuel cell that is smaller than a common household gas generator puts out 20 times as much power.

You could power your entire neighborhood with one of these in a power outage.

I used to believe that, but the future is more like going to change that.

http://asimo.honda.com/

Add armor and a gun and you have great remote control foot soldier.

To bad the parents that lost thier kids don't complain that robots should be on the front line. As a Computer Scientist that has lived on the street and worked at McDonalds and a warehouse for the last three years. I would be happy to develop a good warbot.

Although:

The Cost of Soldiers 40k/yr is less than the Cost of warbot 1 million + 100k/yr in active duty support.

Soldiers are saving peoples lives just by dying so cheaply. They really are true heros. Regardless of your opinion of the war or police action.

It's sad that money is valued more than life to the point that people are killed by both war and redistribution of wealth.

FMLA, Child Tax Credits, House Mortgage Deductions, and the other programs kill people as well just under different circumstances.

Starvation, Jail, Shelter Food Poisoning, Freezing to Death, and much much more are the results for many that pay for such programs and don't get benefits for thier taxation.

While I'm certainly no fan of the Windows family of operating systems on desktops or servers (or PDAs, for that matter), I've recently found myself appreciating a Windows Embedded product. When I bought a new Honda in November, I fell in love with the navigation system - so much so that when I sought to purchase another new vehicle last month, the nav system was a requirement.

After some research and discussion, I was dishearted to find that the navigation systems I had grown to love so much were actually powered by Windows Automotive Edition - based on Windows Embedded, which is a flavor of Windows CE. While I cannot actually tell (by any means) that the system is Windows-based, it is very stable, responsive, fast, and user friendly - most of which is probably of function of the application and not the operating system.

All that said, I'm still psyched about CE 6 if it provides further media access features, hardware drivers, and other niceitys.

I have real pain saying I'm psyched about a Windows product as a Linux and Mac OS geek! :) But, if it helps me get a better navigation system, I'll sell my soul to Redmond.

While I'm certainly no fan of the Windows family of operating systems on desktops or servers (or PDAs, for that matter), I've recently found myself appreciating a Windows Embedded product. When I bought a new Honda in November, I fell in love with the navigation system - so much so that when I sought to purchase another new vehicle last month, the nav system was a requirement.

After some research and discussion, I was dishearted to find that the navigation systems I had grown to love so much were actually powered by Windows Automotive Edition - based on Windows Embedded, which is a flavor of Windows CE. While I cannot actually tell (by any means) that the system is Windows-based, it is very stable, responsive, fast, and user friendly - most of which is probably of function of the application and not the operating system.

All that said, I'm still psyched about CE 6 if it provides further media access features, hardware drivers, and other niceitys.

I have real pain saying I'm psyched about a Windows product as a Linux and Mac OS geek! :) But, if it helps me get a better navigation system, I'll sell my soul to Redmond.

I share your doubts, but must point out that current hybrid cars already use regenerative braking. The efficiency is only something like 30% (losses to transmit through the CVT, generate, store, spin the motor again), but it's still a little bit of return. Since the motor is already designed to act as a generator, it should be little extra investment to program the transmission to load the motor before mechanically engaging the brakes.

http://world.honda.com/news/2006/4060108FCX/

there's your 350 and 5

Don't forget about the Honda Fit ("The Fit is Go"). Can a slogan be any more braindead?

What is with these Japanese companies anyhow...

http://world.honda.com/ASIMO/

game over
thank you for playing

I didn't check the actual leg length/speed ratio for the "world record" thing... but is this really more impressive than Honda's untethered Asimo? Check this video:

http://world.honda.com/HDTV/ASIMO/New-ASIMO-run-6k mh/index.html

The good news is that I think I can still outrun it. For now.

You couldn't possibly mean something like this?

> The Accord Hybrid is faster AND more fuel efficient than its non-hybrid ****V6**** counterpart. That's huge.

The hybrid is running the same V6, and adds a overall 15 HP, and 15 pound-feet of torque, also adds 285 pounds of weight.

http://world.honda.com/news/2004/4040917.html
Acceleration performance from 0-60 miles per hour and from 50-70mph is reduced by one half second compared with the already powerful and sporty Accord V-6 Sedan.

If rich families really want to make an impact on the environment and show everyone they care, a better solution would be to trade in their mammoth SUVs and drive a compact car. There's no need for the fancy hybrid or hydrogen vehicle. Current cars using common technology (NOT hybrids but just regular gasoline engines) already get around 40MPG.

I guess the auto companies are smart how they market their vehicles. The only way to get flashy rich people back into normally sized cars is to offer some hot technology that they can show off.

If you want to wean the country from oil - the car solution is a better step in that direction.

How about a CNG Civic then?

* This offer valid only in California.

Apparently Honda's fuelling stations located in California are completely independent of fossil fuels, relying instead on solar energy to provide the electricity to extract hydrogen from water. The cars are going for a million dollars right now, but Honda is offering year long test drives to select owners. http://world.honda.com/news/2001/c010710.html

attempts to merge a gelatinous cube with a Honda Civic have been less than successful.

I dunno, from what I hear the Element is selling pretty well.

In some cases the electric motor can motivate the car on it's own, but that only applies to the Prius and Ford hybrids, the Civic still needs the engine to get it going. It's only under a limited set of circumstances that the engine can fully take over anyway.

So, you can either pump out the dino juice, and have practically "zero" emissions except that you put out plenty of CO2 that has been locked up for hojillions of years, or you can run a non-topsoil-based diesel biofuel (read: hydroponics, probably algae) which will create other kinds of waste (soot, and nitric oxides) but which does not affect the carbon balance. To me, it's actually not that difficult a decision to make, because the dino juice thing is so destructive. If we ARE going to be pumping oil, sooner or later we're going to need all of it for plastics...

In Japan, minivans have a much better image (just as hatchbacks have a better image in Europe) than in the US. It helps that the Japanese have some pretty cool minivans that we don't.

http://world.honda.com/jet/

I want one. But I'll settle for video pr0n.

Well, if you combine the real-time motion capture of Andy Serkis as gollum (check it out on the extended extras for LOTR) with the type of motors used in the ASIMO, it can be very smooth - check out this motion: http://world.honda.com/HDTV/ASIMO/New-ASIMO-run-6k mh/index.html Note, I am not suggesting that the ASIMO itself would be a sparring partner, but that the motors can indeed be more fluid than you would expect, the asimo does not have to be mounted, whereas the sparring partner could indeed be.

Solenoids do not need to drive a hydraulic system, they can directly drive the limbs. A solenoid that is severly augmented is known as a railgun, and can ramp objects up to speeds as high as 11 km per second.

Just look at Japanese stuff like QRIO and Asimo.
Hell, even the new reincarnations of the old Aibo are impressive.

"Broadband addiction" (whatever that means) is nothing compared to this.

Soon you'll probably have people stating that in Japan robots are getting addicted to humans beings which they see as some sort of organic gadgets. And I'm not just trying to be fun.

No wireless, smaller than an ASIMO. Lame.

Tomo Hiratsuka writes "Honda's ASIMO robot has received his annual refit and now has the power to carry objects with a cart, serve drinks, and run with both feet off the ground at up to 10mph."

This video implies the top speed is 6 km/h, which is just under 4 mph...

-Carl

I was going to post that correction too and I would've if I hadn't looked at the pictures and got distracted
.

RUN with both feet OFF THE GROUND?

Well, maybe not run, but, given that, at least from the pictures on the Honda site, ASIMO looks a bit like a kid with a backpack, perhaps they were thinking of a certain other robot who could certainly move rather fast with both feet off the ground, although, admittedly, that's not running....

(In any case, what the page at the Honda site said was "Through proactive control of ASIMO's posture while both feet are off the ground, the running speed was doubled from the previous 3km/hour to 6km/hour.", so it's not as if both its feet are always off the ground when running; I guess they just fixed it so that it works better in the part of the step when one foot's pushed off the ground but the other one hasn't made contact with the ground yet.)

Although your idea is technically correct, this is a hydrogen fuel cell car. There is no combustion; they bond hydrogen to OH and make water plus electricity. The electricity runs an electric motor and thusly the car goes.

Maybe you should read the article:
http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/11/02/business/hy drogen.t.php

or even some info on the car itself:
http://automobiles.honda.com/info/news/article.asp ?ArticleID=2003100837086

According to Honda http://world.honda.com/Tokyo2005/fcx/index02.html their fuel stack operates down to -20C.

Dammy

I wonder who will be the first to car jack this million dollar test car and take it to Mexico.