Toyota announces T-HR3 Humanoid Robot and sale of Kirobo Mini Toyota held a press release last Tuesday to reveal its third-generation humanoid robot, the T-HR3. As shown above, the robot is teleoperated by a remote maneuvering system, complete with a VR headset so that human controllers can see from the robot's point of view. Here's a demo reel: B-Roll of T-HR3



From the demos, remote operation of the robot seems smooth and responsive. But the robot also shows off compound body movements such as twisting while standing on one leg, which do not seem to be possible using the teleop system alone. There were also no demos of walking or autonomy. It's possible that both are under development.



The T-HR3 is a significant technological improvement over Toyota's past humanoids, i.e. the gimmicky instrument-playing robots. Hopefully this new robot will move beyond being a showpiece for the R&D division of the company and find use in research and real-world applications. That has already happened with with Toyota's mobile manipulator, the Human Support Robot, which has been deployed in home trials as an assistive agent for the disabled.



Toyota also announced that the Kirobo Mini is now available for sale across Japan. The 10cm tall robot communicates with users through speech and gestures. It also has the ability to read user's emotions, though this feature is likely not advanced. Here are some of the concept videos for the device on the company's YouTube channel: Kurobi Mini



The robot is designed to fit into vehicle cupholders, suggesting that Toyota hopes to introduce intelligent agents into the driving experience. Kurobo Mini is on sale for about 400 dollars and requires a small monthly subscription fee.