Frankfurt, September 9, 2003 - Honda President and CEO Takeo Fukui today unveiled ASIMO - the company's advanced humanoid robot - at the Frankfurt Motor Show for the start of its major public tour of Europe.

Developed by Honda, ASIMO (which stands for Advanced Step in Innovative Mobility) is regarded as one of the most advanced walking robots in the world. ASIMO was widely acclaimed by members of the European scientific community at a symposium entitled "From High-Tech to Intelligence - The Challenge of Humanoid Robots" held at the Technical University of Darmstadt on 30 June 2003.

Using new advanced motion technology, ASIMO not only walks forwards and backwards, but also turns sideways, climbs up and down stairs, and turns corners. ASIMO is the closest robot yet to replicating the natural walking motion of humans, an ability which will be demonstrated in live daily demonstrations throughout the show.

"The mission of Honda is to harness the potential of advanced technology to improve the lives of our customers," said Mr Fukui, Speaking at the show. "To fulfil this vision, we have not limited ourselves to the mobility concepts of today. We continue to dream".

Honda stressed that there is a long way to go before specific roles can be assigned to humanoid robots. Honda is already renting out ASIMO to corporations and organisations in Japan for promotional roles such as welcoming visitors.

Commenting further on ASIMO, Mr Fukui said "I see my role as providing the freedom to dream and will to challenge as a motivating force for Honda associates throughout the world. ASIMO is a new technology that we have developed independently, and we hope that one day it will play a role in assisting humans in all sorts of ways".

ASIMO's appearance at the Frankfurt Motor Show is the first in a major programme of public demonstrations across Europe.