Honda
Honda ran the most influential corporate humanoid program of the 1990s and 2000s, from the secret E series through P2 and ASIMO, before ending ASIMO development in 2018.
- Type
- automaker
- Headquarters
- Tokyo, Japan
- Founded
- 1948
- Founders
- Soichiro Honda, Takeo Fujisawa
- Status
- active
- Employees (est.)
- n/d
- Disclosed funding
- n/d
- Valuation
- n/d
- Listed
- TYO: 7267, NYSE: HMC
- Website
- global.honda
What the record says.
Honda Motor Co., founded in 1948 by Soichiro Honda and Takeo Fujisawa and listed in Tokyo and New York, funded humanoid research internally for longer than anyone else, starting in secret in 1986 with the E series of walking test rigs (E0 to E6, 1986 to 1993), followed by the P series (P1 to P3, 1993 to 1997). P2, unveiled in 1996, walked with its own on-board power and no tether, which set the template for the field.
ASIMO followed in October 2000: 130 cm tall, 54 kg, with 20 units of the first model built by 2002. The 2011 version ran at 9 km/h with 57 degrees of freedom. ASIMO never became a product; it was used for demonstrations, shows and museums. In July 2018 Honda said it would stop developing and producing ASIMO and in March 2022 retired it from public duty, shifting to remotely operated avatar robots.
The successor is the Honda Avatar Robot, a teleoperated upper body with a wire-driven 16-joint hand that Honda says exerts five times ASIMO's fingertip force. At a Tokyo summit in May 2026 it threaded a needle and tightened small fasteners under human control with AI assistance. Honda talks of practical use in the 2030s and has named no product, price, customer or deployment date.
4 humanoids tracked.
ASIMO
ASIMO, unveiled by Honda on 31 October 2000, was the best known humanoid of its era, evolving through several versions until the 2011 model that ran at 9 km/h. Honda ended development in 2018 and retired the robot from public shows in 2022.
Honda E series (E0 to E6)
Honda's E series were seven legged research machines developed in secret between 1986 and 1993, progressing from static to dynamic walking and stair climbing. They were revealed publicly only when P2 was announced in 1996.
Honda P2
P2 was the first humanoid to carry its own power and computing while walking, an achievement that surprised the robotics community when Honda revealed it in December 1996.
Honda P3
P3 reduced P2's size and weight to 160 cm and 130 kg and became the basis of the Japanese government's HRP-1 platform.
At customer sites.
| Robot | Customer | Site | Since | Status | Units |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ASIMO | Honda (internal) | Honda headquarters, Aoyama, Tokyo, and Miraikan science museum, Japan | 2002 | ended | n/d |
Milestones.
Honda stops developing ASIMO
Nikkei reports that Honda has disbanded the ASIMO development team and will focus on practical robotics such as mobility aids. ASIMO's public shows at Miraikan in Tokyo end in March 2022.
Honda presents an all new ASIMO with autonomous behaviour
The 2011 ASIMO runs at 9 km/h, hops on one leg, pours drinks and chooses its own path among people. Honda also derives a remote operated robot arm for the Fukushima Daiichi plant from the technology.
New ASIMO runs at 6 km/h
Honda's updated ASIMO runs at 6 km/h, pushes a cart, carries a tray and can act as a receptionist. The version is deployed at Honda's Tokyo headquarters as a guide.
Honda unveils ASIMO
Honda introduces ASIMO, a 120 cm, 43 kg humanoid that walks smoothly, changes direction while walking and recognises gestures. ASIMO becomes the most famous humanoid of the 2000s and is shown at Honda events and museums worldwide for two decades.
Honda unveils P3
P3 is smaller and lighter than P2 at 160 cm and 130 kg and is the direct predecessor of ASIMO. It is the first fully independent bipedal humanoid from Honda.
Honda unveils P2, the first self contained bipedal humanoid
Honda reveals P2, a 182 cm, 210 kg humanoid that walks, climbs stairs and pushes a cart with all batteries, computers and motors on board and wireless control. Its public debut after ten years of secret research surprises the robotics community.
Honda builds E0, the start of its humanoid program
Honda's secret research program produces E0, a pair of legs that takes about five seconds per step with static walking. The E series (E0 to E6, 1986 to 1993) leads to the P series and eventually ASIMO.
How long does a humanoid robot actually run
22 of 182 humanoids on record quote a runtime. The claims run from 1 to 8 hours with a median of 4, and of the 44 machines you can order, 4 say anything at all.
Japan built the first humanoids, then stopped shipping them
Japan has 24 humanoids and 12 makers in our record, more than any country except China and the United States. Two of the 24 can be ordered today, and both were first shown in 2009.
Startups, automakers, universities: who builds humanoids
108 makers, nine kinds. Startups hold 37 of the 44 humanoids you can order. Automakers, universities, big tech, conglomerates and NASA hold 45 robots between them and sell none of them.
44 you can order, 138 you cannot: the gap explained
We keep a record of 182 humanoid robots. Fewer than a quarter of them will sell you one, and of those, only eight tell you the price on their own website. Here is where the rest went.
A short history of the humanoid, from Elektro to the order button
Our record holds 111 dated milestones since 1939. Sixty-eight of them are from this decade, and what changed was not the walking. It was the price tag.
Why hands are the hardest part of a humanoid
Of 182 humanoids on record, 96 describe their hands and 13 publish a degrees-of-freedom figure for them. The word dexterous appears 21 times and comes with a number once.
Sources
- 01
- 02ASIMOWikipedia
- 03Honda Avatar RobotHonda
- 04
- 05