President Obama plays soccer with ASIMO the Robot

During a youth science event at the National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation, spectators were witness to a fun, impromptu soccer match between U.S. President Barrack Obama and Honda’s humanoid robot, ASIMO. 

ASIMO stands for Advanced Step in Innovative Mobility, and you can learn a ton on all of its development through the years in previous articles we’ve written on the technology. It’s an impressive bot, and certainly held up to its billing when it engaged the President in a friendly game of football.

Even the President remarked afterward that the robot’s soccer skills were “pretty impressive.”

Worth noting are the comments said after the event, in which the President said the androids at the Expo were a bit “too lifelike” and “a little scary” for his liking.

ASIMO has been in a state of constant development over the past 14 years. Since its introduction in October 2000, the bot’s capabilities have grown tremendously — today, not only can it play soccer, it can also pour a cup of juice, walk, run, travel up and down a flight of stairs, recognize faces, and even converse with humans (it engaged in brief English dialogue with the President prior to their faceoff).

The President concluded his visit to the museum with a speech to a group of students, in which he stressed the importance of science and math programs both in the U.S. as well as in Japan. “Young people like you have more technology and more power than even the greatest innovators of previous generations, so there is no limit to what you can achieve,” he said.

Watch the full soccer match between President Obama and ASIMO in the clip below:

VIDEO

Story via mashable.com