SMMT News

ASIMO stars at SMMT Industry Forum Youth Summit

07 July 2006 #SMMT News

ASIMO, Honda’s advanced humanoid robot, put in another star performance at the 2006 SMMT Industry Forum’s Youth Engineering Summit in Birmingham this week.

Raising interest in engineering amongst over 1,500 West Midlands school children, ASIMO’s second visit to the annual event and builds on a highly successful debut appearance last year. During each performance ASIMO highlighted the importance of engineering and science to society, encouraging the year 8 and 9 students to play an active role in shaping the future of the industry.

At last year’s event 49 per cent of the students, who had not considered a career in engineering before the event, had changed their minds after seeing the show.

ASIMO’s attendance at the Summit is part of Honda’s commitment to social activity and its philosophy to ‘foster a spirited and dynamic people and society for the next generation.’ Honda implements various social activities, designed to communicate to young people the importance and joy of having dreams, taking on new challenges, and creating things.

ASIMO is the latest example of Honda’s extensive research into the field of humanoid robotics which stretches back to 1986. In December 2005, Honda debuted a new version of the humanoid robot featuring a number of enhanced abilities allowing ASIMO to act in harmony with people, perform a series of everyday tasks and run at a speed of 6km/hour.

William De Braekeleer, of Honda Motor Europe said, ‘The Youth Engineering Summit is a great opportunity to show to young people the exciting challenges they could face through a career in science and engineering. ASIMO demonstrates the diverse and revolutionary projects children could become involved in and I hope more young children are inspired to realise that science and engineering can be fun.’

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