back to article Honda shows off space-dwarf robot butler capability

The Japanese robot industry is streets ahead of the competition when it comes to designing droids for peaceful uses (for war-bots, of course, the discerning purchaser shops in America). That said, Japanese robots have so far struggled to find a real, erm, killer application. This is perhaps because the robo-designers of Japan …

COMMENTS

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  1. Steve
    Coat

    Nuts

    They could at least build a bowl or similar container on the robot's head so that it could carry nuts and other nibbles around the room while it carries drinks about and plots world domination.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    51 inches tall AND they serve drinks?

    They'll get a lot of business on those street corners. Do they have flat heads?

  3. Harry
    Happy

    Nuts to that idea

    If you want nuts, it could surely unscrew one from its body ?

  4. Geoff Mackenzie

    Old news ...

    Videos showing Asimo serving drinks and pushing trolleys have been doing the rounds online for a while now.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Alert

    Imagine a busy restaurant ...

    The gap between tables is usually too narrow for a human to pass safely, and that's without the strong possibility of a finding a handbag in the aisles or somebody getting up just as the robot is passing.

    Now take into account that the person it's serving is quite likely to have changed seats between taking the order and delivering it ... I think it will be a while longer before even Honda manages to figure out how to deliver drinks to the right person by walking robot.

  6. Tom

    Good height

    I think we all knnow what 51 inches is a good height for.....

  7. Ian Ferguson

    'Serving' drinks

    I'm not convinced. My childhood toy train could 'serve' drinks if my mum put a cup of orange on it and I picked it up as it passed me.

    Can this robot take my order, find the right bottles out of the wine cupboard and fridge, open the bottles if necessary, find a clean glass, pour the required amounts from bottles (even if partially empty), mix correctly, and (most importantly) take an olive out of a jar and stick it on a cocktail stick?

    Because if it can't do any of the above (not to mention clearing up afterwards and pointing me towards the loo*), it is less than worthless and will cause MORE work for me, not make my life easier.

    *Unless, of course, it has a handy port for this. In which case I take my criticism back.

    P.S. Where's the "I'm orff to the pub" / "mine's a stout" icon?

  8. Peter

    Biddy biddy biddy Buck....

    There! had to get that one in.

  9. peter
    Heart

    Cynthia forever

    The original robotic bartender, Cynthia, 7ft tall.

    I think Cynthia's Robotic Bar & Restaurant was closed in 2004 and she was unemployed when it beame a Nigerian nightclub called Wicked.. It may have reverted to being called Astia or astronia-london which was refused a public entertainments license. But two years ago they had 2 robot bartenders working there,Cynthia and Rastus?

    She's either dead and ripped out, or in he corner of the bar waiting for another owner to come along.Someone should go down there,4 Tooley Street, London, SE1 2SY Under London Bridge.

  10. Walter Brown
    Paris Hilton

    @Ian Ferguson

    you sir dont need a robot, you need a wife....

  11. Andrew Heenan
    Coat

    A Sad Day For The Urban Robot

    "By the end of 2010s, we'd like to see these robots working at every street corner of the city"

    I don't think the register should be celebrating the advent of barely-teen panhandling robots.

    Will they be able to sell the Big Issue?

  12. Graham Marsden
    Coat

    But...

    Will it serve a drink that tastes "almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea"?

    And will they have Genuine People Personalities?

  13. Rick Brasche
    Unhappy

    "Nuts"?

    don't give it ideas! at that height-one stiff-armed mechanical punch and "The Nutcracker" becomes more than a Christmastime theatrical production...

  14. Darren Brooke
    Happy

    loving...

    ...the picture tag

    "take this shit away and get me a large gin"

    reminds me of my childhood

    ;o)

  15. Steve P
    Thumb Up

    Badum-tish

    Secondly, there was a truly disturbing suggestion that Honda intends its stunted spacesuit robots to serve other basic human needs.

    "By the end of 2010s, we'd like to see these robots working at every street corner of the city," ...

    Very clever, sir.

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