Questão 3334

(UFRGS - 2007) 

ROBOT WORKER HITS THE TOWN

Office workers, meet the colleague of the future. Asimo, the world's most "human" robot, will start work in May as an office receptionist in Japan.

²Visitors to ⁴Honda's Wako building will be greeted by Asimo, which can show ¹them to meeting rooms and .......... them tea and coffee on a tray. With optical and ultrasonic sensors, ³its makers say, it can recognise people and its surrounding environment, and there are already plans to lease the model out to other users.

Six years in development, Asimo is "able to walk in a smooth fashion which ⁷closely ........... that of a human being", says Honda. It has deliberately been designed to be similar in size to a 10-year-old child, so that it is less likely to intimidate people. ⁸It is also the fastest robot yet. Its ability to run tirelessly would put many people to shame.

Asimo is an acronym for Advanced Step in Innovative Mobility. The robot is ⁹smaller and ¹⁰lighter than earlier prototypes, but tall enough, its makers say, to reach door knobs, operate switches and perform tasks at tables and benches. Honda, which is now .......... its efforts on artificial intelligence, says it is aiming to develop a future version of Asimo that will be able to think for itself. Whether humans will want to work alongside a ⁶robot ⁵that might show them up is another matter.

(Adapted from: OWEN, Jonathan, The Independent on Sunday, 30 Apr. 2006.)

Select the correct alternative to complete the sentence below.

The opposite of SMALLER (ref. 9) and LIGHTER (ref. 10) is respectively .......... and .......... .