Honda has revealed that it will be showing a motorcycle using the firm’s robotic technology at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas early next year.
The firm’s official information about the new concept is minimal at the moment. A simple release states: “The January 5, 2017 Honda press conference at CES will feature a keynote address from Yoshiyuki Matsumoto, President & CEO of Honda R&D Co., Ltd, who will unveil a concept motorcycle demonstrating an application of the company’s robotics technology.”
What could that mean? It obviously leaves a lot of doors open. Honda’s robotics knowledge is among the best in the world, as demonstrated by the well-known ASIMO project that’s been underway since the turn of the millennium. Could Honda be following Yamaha’s lead, and creating a fully-robotic motorcycle rider? Yamaha’s MotoBot project is due to hit speeds of 200km/h in 2017 and has the eventual target of being able to lap race tracks as fast as any human can manage.
Kawasaki has also recently announced plans for artificial intelligence in motorcycles, focussing on voice control and internet connectivity for the bike’s on-board systems.
Honda’s use of the term ‘robotics technology’ hints that it will be more like the Yamaha than the Kawasaki idea, although it’s unlikely to be a similar self-riding bike project. The firm’s huge bank of patent applications over the years hints at various ideas that combine robotics tech and motorcycles. Its ideas include bikes with automatically-varying steering head angles and others with built-in cameras that ‘read’ road conditions in real time. It’s also developed systems to ‘assist’ steering.
Most recently the company has patented a system that robotically alters the angles of a bike’s footpegs and seat to help shift the rider into the best position for specific circumstances.
Perhaps the most ambitious is a patent dating back to 2013 that shows an electric bike that can convert from a cruiser to a naked sports bike, shifting the riding position and altering the chassis geometry all by itself.
Any of these could be tied to the CES concept, or it could turn out to be something entirely different. Not long now until we find out.