In all seriousness, I like ASIMO. But he trips and falls pretty often, and doesn't demonstrate much EFFECTIVE dexterity or usefulness. Mostly just awkwardly shaking the hand of a pretty spokesmodel on stage.
I hope Honda is able to work with the nuclear engineers and other folks responding to the reactor tragedy there, and that ASIMO is actually useful, rather than merely a marketing gimmick.
Yes, the Japanese seem to have a "top down" approach to robotics. Namely, bust-ass for decades to produce a humanoid, then just kind of hope "if you build it, they will come" sort of marketing, or sensor/motion/control tech will just one day be perfected.
I understand part of this is the cultural monomania that was placed into the idea of the robot post-WWII, it's been a consistent outlet for heroism and cathartic struggle for them as they've never really come to terms with their imperial past. And that they have a great need for humanoid robots because elder-care is such a problem in their problems with inverted age demographics.
The "bottom up" American approach that's geared towards understanding basic locomotion, autonomous navigation, and creating emergent properties from a hierarchical set of behaviors and reflexes like found in nature seem much more promising in the long run. "Big Dog" and some other bots we've created are downright eerie in how "alive" they seem to be.
I do wish the Japanese every possible success though.
