The robots of Sundance

Honda's ASIMO P3 humanoid robot will make an all-singing, all-dancing -- well, stair-climbing -- public appearance at the Sundance film festival in Utah.

ASIMO P3 is just 158 cm tall and weighs a beefy 130 kg, but its mums and dads will be proud as can be when it ascends a rostrum and waves in greeting to its audiences at this year's Sundance Festival in Utah.

P3 is Honda's name for the latest progeny of its long-established ASIMO -- it stands for Advanced Step in Innovative MObility -- robotics project, now going on a quarter of a century old. Honda claims P3 is the world's first humanoid robot. It will be formally introduced to the world with the release of a documentary, 'Living With Robots', at this year's Sundance Film Festival in the US.

Produced in part by Honda and directed by filmmaker Joe Berlinger -- best known here for his doco on metal band Metallica's adventures in group therapy, 'Some Kind of Monster' -- it's a what-if piece drawing ideas and commentary from an assortment of futurists and science-fiction screenwriters, philosophers and engineers.

And P3 will step out in support, with live demo sessions at the festival. Honda, one of the festival's major sponsors, will take the opportunity to showcase more conventional products, most notably its upcoming CR-Z sport hybrid and the fuel-cell powered FCX Clarity.

Honda set up the ASIMO project in 1986, with the express aim of creating a walking robot. It began with the development of legs designed for simple bipedal mobility, then progressed into stabilisation on uneven surfaces and trickery like negotiating stairs. Over time, as model after model 'grew' torsos, heads and arms, their balance improved and their functionality broadened. With each new generation, they've become more compact and lighter, too: the first humanoid model, P1, was 185 cm tall and weighed 175 kg.

Capable of understanding simple voice commands, P3 can run, walk on uneven terrain, turn smoothly, ascend and descend stairs, and grab objects. With the aid of its camera eyes, it can recognise faces, map its surrounds and avoid stationary and moving objects as it moves.

Future uses include external sensory and mobility duties -- vision, hearing, arms and legs -- for those in need, and taking the place of people in dangerous situations like bomb disposal, firefighting and toxic cleanup.

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