ASIMO Humanoid Robot is probably the most advanced robot available today. Sadly it's not available for hom use, yet, but if it did, it would probably cost the same as an exclusive italian sportscar (or the URWERK 103.5 watch) which would put it out of most people's price range.

Looking a bit like a teenage runaway with its little backpack,ASIMO just found a job as a greeter at Disneyland, to help pay for his R&D costs. Honda as also shown that it can carry coffee cups, which means he could work at Starbuck's as soon as someone shows him how to work the expresso machine.

Honda also has a fantastic site showing the evolution of their humanoid robots from the early research to the current model Asimo. From the first E0 (Experimental Model Zero) bipedal locomotion prototype built in 1986, Honda has been steadily making progress in its robotic research unit, with the first automomous robots appearing in 1991, until the current production model ASIMO which first appeared in 2000 and continues to be refined.

I love the fact that some of the earlier prototype look like they escaped from a deranged Star Wars droid factory. Is this a case of reality being inspired by fiction, or the other way around? More to see on Very Eclectic (via oO's very eclectic)