ASIMO — whose name is an acronym for our “Advanced Step in Innovative Mobility” — was first dreamed up way back in 1986. That’s when Honda associates first proposed creating a humanoid robot that moved and walked just like a real person.

Is ASIMO still alive?

Asimo, Honda’s adorable, humanoid robot, is no more. The company announced it would cease production of the robot in order to focus on using Asimo’s technology for more practical use cases in nursing and road transport, as reported by Nikkei Asian Review.

Is ASIMO named after Isaac Asimov?

Asimo (named, of course, after science fiction pioneer Isaac Asimov) is older than you might guess: although it was revealed in 2000 as the first credibly bipedal walking robot, it had at that point been under development for more than a decade.