Japanese manufacturers put great store in humanoid robots (as well as canoid ones like the dog AIBO as developed by Sony) not simply because they bring welcome publicity but also because they see enormous sales potential in the development of humanoid robots working in such areas as hospitality, home help and patient care.
There is still a long way to go as the challenges in engineering and programing are vast. Currently Toyota has a robot that plays the violin - plays it, not makes movements to a recording - and this has evolved from one that played the trumpet. Honda first unveiled ASIMO (Advanced...