On November 20, 2000, Honda Motor Co. announced ASIMO, whose name stands for “Advanced Step in Innovative Mobility.” Honda described it as a small, lightweight humanoid - 1,200 mm tall and 43 kg - that used new walking technology to achieve “an unprecedented human-like ability to walk.” The key advance was combining “Predicted Movement Control” - shifting the robot’s center of gravity in anticipation of its next move - with Honda’s existing walking know-how, letting ASIMO turn and respond to sudden changes “more smoothly, more flexibly, and more naturally.”
ASIMO was the public face of a research program Honda had run quietly since 1986. Its humanoid lineage ran from the E0 walking-leg experiment (1986), through the P-series, including the P2 of December 1996 - which Honda calls “the world’s first” self-regulating, wireless bipedal humanoid walking robot - and the smaller P3 of 1997. ASIMO’s 120 cm height was chosen so it could reach household switches, doorknobs, and tabletops.
Over the following decade Honda added conversation, faster and nimbler movement, multi-robot coordination, and autonomous behavior. ASIMO became a global ambassador for robotics - it rang the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange in 2002 - before Honda wound down the program and retired ASIMO from active demonstrations in 2022, redirecting the technology toward more practical assistive and avatar robots.