Drinks at Asimo Cafe

I went to Honda's Tokyo showroom and had the pleasure of being served drinks by its humanoid robot Asimo.

Guests sit at tables in the office lobby equipped with touch-panel displays. There are two Asimos standing by at their charging stations. When they receive an order, they whir to life and bustle about like human waiters.

I selected green tea. Asimo carried out the order flawlessly - receiving a drinks tray from a human staffer, carrying to my table and depositing it, then bowing courteously and moving off. Other guests bowed to Asimo in return.

Perhaps the coolest thing was that it was largely business as usual at the office. Executives were coming and going, receptionists were greeting visitors and not too many people took much notice in the fact that there were two robots waltzing around the room serving tea and coffee.

Honda has always said it wants Asimo to be part of the everyday environment, and this was its most convincing demo yet.

Asimo gets smarter, can work in groups

Just in time for the holidays, here comes the Asimo swarm.

Honda Motor has continued to evolve its humanoid robot Asimo and has equipped it with new smarts that lets it work in groups and for one to take over when another is recharging.

Asimo can now operate in an environment with people as well as other Asimos. Robots working together will wirelessly share data such as battery levels and the closest unit to a given task. Each works autonomously based on the networked information.

Another new AI function allows Asimo to estimate the path of people walking toward it based on their speed and direction and to avoid them by stepping back if necessary.

And when Asimo's battery level falls below a certain level, it will return to its recharging station and power up.

This marks the first Asimo upgrade since 2005. Having solved most major engineering challenges in building a bipedal robot, Honda has been focusing on Asimo's AI skills.

Check out the Honda videos here.

The latest version will be serving refreshments at Honda's Tokyo HQ this month and next. Eggnog, anyone?