The Japanese company Honda has tested the second prototype of an AWV unmanned work vehicle in New Mexico. It looks like a small truck without a top. AWV can carry up to 399 kilograms, travel up to 45 kilometers and work up to six hours on a single charge.
In 2018, Honda introduced a new line of robot assistants . Among them was a small autonomous AWV ATV, suitable for a variety of tasks: from helping in agriculture to shopping. By the end of 2018, the Japanese company started testing a prototype robot in California.
On November 15, Honda announced that it had tested the second AWV prototype at the construction site of a solar power plant in New Mexico. The robot paved a road over an area of four square kilometers, stopped at specified points and delivered materials and supplies.
If the first version of the robot resembled an ATV, then the second is more like a small truck, more precisely, its lower part. It has a body like a pickup truck with folding sides and a pair of round headlights in front. The second-generation AWV weighs 721 kilograms and can carry up to 399 kilograms (or tow up to 750 kilograms). At maximum load, the robot's range is up to 45 kilometers. On a single charge, it can work up to six hours.
Like the first prototype, the new AWV version received lidar, radar, 3D cameras and GPS. The car can move autonomously, or it can be controlled remotely.
Honda is developing other robots as well. For example, the humanoid rescuer E2-DR, which we wrote about earlier. He can climb ladders and ladders and work in the rain.
Vasilisa Chernyavtseva