After ASIMO, Honda shows a teleoperated avatar robot that tightens screws with AI help

At the show, held at the Makuhari Messe exhibition centre in Chiba, an engineer working remotely piloted the robot to tighten the screws of an engine casing.

The demonstration compared work with and without AI. Without assistance, the robot grasped the screw but struggled to reorient it to place it. With the AI switched on, it adjusted the balance of forces between its fingers and managed to regrasp it.

According to Kōdai Yamaguchi, a researcher at Honda R&D interviewed by Robotstart, the project began when Honda decided to stop developing its humanoid ASIMO. It already has 5 to 6 years of research behind it.

Honda is also studying uses that would allow the multi-fingered hand alone to be installed earlier on real production lines, alongside the full avatar robot.

Network latency remains an obstacle. According to Kōdai Yamaguchi, it can reach about 200 ms between Japan and the United States.