http://www.engadget.com/2006/12/11/honda-asimo-takes-a-nasty-fall/Honda's famous walking robot, Asimo, managed to make an arse of himself at a recent show-off event by falling down a set of stairs which he was supposed to climb (video available in above Engadget article). Ok fine, not that interesting, they are robots after all. We all probably took pity at the predicament it got itself in (apparently it said 'help, I've fallen down and can't get back up' in Japanese - see linked Engadget article's comments), more so for me seeing as that's where my degree is taking me, but that's not the funny bit.
Watch as Asimo gets ready for his climb - just as he starts to climb, he turns his head 90 degrees so its facing the audience. We would've all forgiven him for being so up-him/her/it-self for climbing stairs without watching where he/she/it's going, but I think the robot gods finally decided Asimo's cockiness was geting the better of him and needs to be punished. After all, Asimo's been performing his amazing feats for a fair while now, and mostly without issue. The robot gods wouldn't want us to think that they're actually capable creatures able to imitate and take over Earth now, would they?
I love how they have to roll out a screen to cover Asimo while they see what's wrong with him - we wouldn't want the world to be exposed to a naked robot now, would we? That's a pleasure only robotic engineers are entitled to
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And finally, yes its a hard job hosting a demo that fails (ask Bill Gates or Steve Jobs) but the Japanese host just seemed to continue her spiel as if nothing happened (ok, I don't understand Japanese and the Japanese sometimes have weird body language, so I could be wrong). Maybe, just maybe, Honda decided to be smart and test their secret new realistic female Asimo companion on us...
P.S. As an Engadget reader pointed out, why does the Japanese have an obsession with people dressing in school uniform? Hang on, maybe more than the Japanese do, but they're just crazy enough to make it reality...