00:00You've been with the team for the longest time.
00:01I mean, we're talking about going from P2 to ASIMO, now Avatar Robotics.
00:05Tell us a little bit about the development that you've seen so far.
00:10As you know, Honda has developed the human robot focusing on the bipedal locomotion in the past.
00:15And Honda was one of the pioneers to lead the human robotics research itself.
00:21But around 2013, we shifted our focus from the bipedal locomotion to much more high-level locomotion,
00:31like climbing up the ladders or disaster response type of applications.
00:42But literally also shifted the research field into manipulation.
00:46Because the manipulation is one of the most important functions to provide the value to the customer.
00:53Tell us a little bit more about that.
00:55Are you talking about Avatar Robots and manipulation and being in a different environment?
00:59Or are you talking about the fingers and the dexterity of the robots?
01:03Our vision is for Avatar Robot.
01:06Avatar Robot means four-dimensional mobility.
01:08Honda has a business on two-dimensional mobility, like automobile, motorcycle,
01:14and also starting new business as 3D mobility, such as HondaJet, or EV2, or Rocket.
01:24So, and we defined robot as a four-dimensional mobility, which goes beyond time and distance.
01:32And this is just a vision.
01:34And this vision means that we can teleoperate robot in a far place.
01:40And also, we can delegate robot to do what we want to do.
01:45And it means that teleoperation and autonomy, two types of technology should be there.
01:52And the interface should be human-like interface, like a multi-finger hand.
01:56So, then we started the research on the multi-finger hand.
02:01And the multi-finger hand is, I believe, a very important thing.
02:05How does it feel going from developing bipedal robots?
02:10And I remember reading that you were really thinking about how people walk,
02:14how people climb up the stairs, and then you go to the dexterity of the hands.
02:19How does that really reflect what's happening in the changes of the humanoid industry?
02:25Well, I have done the locomotion research.
02:30It's much more cheaper CPU, low-performance CPUs.
02:41But now, we can use plenty of the, like, calculation resources.
02:47And it makes it easy to make the robot learn to, like, walk.
02:53I think it's big changes right now.
02:55So, not only the PhDs who know robotics,
02:59but also the normal person can somehow make the robot walk.
03:03I think it's big changes.
03:05But still, for the manipulation, such a transition is not yet done.
03:12What was interesting was that we saw Japan as a pioneer when it comes to humanoid robots.
03:18And as Honda, you have said, has gone through many shifts in what is being prioritized in the development of
03:24this technology.
03:26Do you see Japan focusing back on humanoids or more on automation and factory floors?
03:32It's just my personal opinion.
03:35Still, humanoid is not matured yet.
03:38And I think the current humanoid can somehow do a great dance or a kung fu.
03:46But it's not beyond the fact we expect to be provided to the customers value.
03:58So, what does the industry look like for you in the next five years?
04:04For industries?
04:06So, import, a big challenge is the shortage of the human labors.
04:11So, we have to somehow provide the solution for the customers or industry customers
04:19to, like, fulfill the shortage of human labors.
04:23So, but the current, like, industry level with grippers can only do a small amount of the works.
04:32So, still, a lot of works have been done, have been done by human labors.
04:37So, it's big challenges for us, yeah.
04:41The integration of artificial intelligence automation is already happening in, say, Honda's manufacturing floors, right?
04:48Yeah.
04:49How do you see that progressing as also you get more general intelligence?
04:56At the starting point, we focus on the realizing the task, which is not yet done by ordinary, traditional industrial
05:06robots.
05:07But, accumulating the success data, we can go into the, like, much more physical AI-related or AI type of
05:19development.
05:23What about the competition in the world right now?
05:26Because we are seeing a lot of Chinese tech companies also come forward with new technologies.
05:32So, they have, Chinese companies, tech companies have strong, has strongness on cheaping, cost reduction itself.
05:43And the US company has much more strongness on the AI itself.
05:47So, Japanese company has strongness on, making precise or high-quality hardware.
05:58So, I think we have to make use of this strongness, but with combining the AI type of technologies.
06:08Yeah.
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