Honda’s interactive robot museum guide sees glitches, not quite a ‘people person’

TOKYO – Honda Motor Co.’s walking, talking interactive robot is running into glitches in its new job as a museum guide in Tokyo.

The bubble-headed Asimo machine had problems telling the difference between people raising their hands to ask questions and those aiming their smartphones to take photos at the Miraikan science museum.

It froze mid-action and repeated a programmed remark, “Who wants to ask Asimo a question?”

The robot is connected by wireless to six sensors in the ceiling to discern where a crowd is gathering. It has no voice recognition and responds to written questions selected from a touch-panel device.

Honda’s robotics, although among the most advanced for mobility, has come under fire as lacking in usefulness. Asimo could not go into radiated areas after the 2011 Fukushima nuclear crisis.