No matter occurred to ASIMO? Honda’s well-known humanoid robotic (pictured beneath with what we imagine is an precise human feminine) disappeared from public view a number of years in the past, simply earlier than a unprecedented new wave of humanoid growth swept by the robotics business.
However Honda didn’t abandon humanoid robotics. As an alternative, a lot of the know-how and experience accrued by many years of ASIMO growth seems to have migrated into a brand new technology of analysis – together with the corporate’s placing Avatar Robotic (principal image) and a very dexterous new robotic hand.
Honda demonstrated each at Humanoids Summit 2026 in Could, the place guests may remotely function the Avatar Robotic and expertise the actions of its multi-fingered hand.
The robotic is conceived much less as an autonomous humanoid employee and extra as a bodily extension of a human operator. Honda’s long-term thought is that somebody may remotely use an Avatar Robotic to carry out work someplace they can not – or mustn’t – bodily be.
That would ultimately embody hazardous environments, distant upkeep and different duties requiring human judgment mixed with robotic attain and manipulation.
And manipulation is the place Honda’s newest analysis turns into notably attention-grabbing.
A hand that may thread a needle
Honda says its new human-scale multi-fingered hand combines dexterity, energy and sturdiness sufficiently properly to carry out duties starting from threading a needle and utilizing scissors to tightening screws and dealing with heavy objects.
The hand incorporates 16 actuated joints with most steady joint speeds of 180 levels per second.
Every fingertip can constantly exert as a lot as 50 N of drive, whereas six-axis drive sensors on the fingertips and 288 tactile-sensor channels distributed throughout the fingers and palm present detailed details about bodily contact.
Honda has additionally subjected the mechanism to greater than 450,000 durability-test cycles, together with 24,000 cycles involving lifting a 5 kg weight.
The consequence, Honda claims, is a robotic hand that has reached a sensible stage the place it will possibly “work like a human”.
That may be a important declare at a very attention-grabbing second for humanoid robotics.
Strolling was as soon as the good problem. Right this moment, more and more spectacular humanoids can stroll, run, bounce and even carry out acrobatics. However making them commercially helpful requires one thing relatively much less spectacular: dependable fingers able to doing helpful work for hours at a time.
From ASIMO to Avatar
Honda has maybe extra historical past on this discipline than virtually any firm now creating humanoids.
It started researching bipedal robots in 1986, lengthy earlier than immediately’s humanoid increase. Its P2 robotic appeared in 1996, adopted by P3 and, in 2000, ASIMO.
ASIMO turned arguably the world’s most well-known humanoid robotic.
Its capabilities look comparatively modest beside immediately’s machines. It wasn’t doing backflips or martial arts. Even strolling required the type of cautious management that fashionable humanoids could make look virtually trivial.
However that comparability dangers forgetting simply how far forward of its time ASIMO was. Honda was demonstrating dependable bipedal locomotion, stair climbing, human interplay and fundamental manipulation when only a few firms have been significantly trying to construct general-purpose humanoid machines.
Honda ultimately stopped ASIMO growth, however the experience didn’t disappear.
The corporate says engineers who labored on ASIMO have subsequently contributed to the Avatar Robotic program and its robotic hand. In that sense, Avatar shouldn’t be a lot a sudden return to humanoid robotics as proof that Honda by no means fully left.
The technique has modified, nonetheless.
Fairly than instantly trying to construct one other totally autonomous, general-purpose humanoid, Honda is separating the issue into applied sciences that may grow to be helpful independently.
The Avatar Robotic, for instance, retains a human operator within the decision-making loop whereas robotic and AI programs help with the bodily execution of actions.
That would present a extra sensible route into real-world purposes than ready for a totally autonomous humanoid able to understanding and dealing with each scenario by itself.
Honda’s quieter robotics empire
Neither is humanoid analysis Honda’s solely involvement in robotics.
Over time, the corporate has developed mobility robots and assistive applied sciences derived partly from ASIMO analysis, autonomous machines and the Miimo robotic garden mower, amongst different tasks.
However Avatar is especially intriguing due to the present explosion of funding in humanoids.
Firms world wide are actually attempting to unravel most of the issues Honda started investigating 4 many years in the past. And the business’s consideration is more and more shifting from the query of whether or not humanoids can stroll to whether or not they can truly carry out helpful work.
Honda’s new hand places the corporate instantly into that dialog.
ASIMO itself in all probability isn’t coming again. However Honda’s Avatar Robotic – full with two remarkably succesful five-fingered fingers – it’s changing into more and more troublesome to argue that Honda ever actually gave up on the concept behind it.
