While most automakers focus on manufacturing robots or autonomous vehicles, Toyota Motor Corporation has also been researching home service robots. Yesterday, the Toyota Research Institute held virtual open days for its R&D facilities in Los Altos, California, and Cambridge, Massachusetts.

The Toyota Research Institute (TRI) demonstrated how robots learn and perform tasks, such as wiping surfaces, picking up various items and loading them into dishwashers, and how they operate in dynamic environments designed for humans rather than robots. TRI also showcased manipulation research using physical robots and simulations, as well as a prototype room built in its California laboratory.

TRI's assistive robots are roughly humanoid, with two arms, a wheeled base, and multiple degrees of freedom. The company is also developing algorithms, grippers, and other service robots in partnership with collaborators.

Toyota Research Institute invests in human augmentation

Toyota Research InstituteCEO Gill Pratt (Gill Pratt) stated that Toyota is investing in robotics to enhance human capabilities, as a logical extension of how automobiles expand mobility. He said that TRI's research in robotics, assisted driving, accelerated materials design and discovery, and machine-assisted cognition is guided by the Ikigai concept, meaning that everyone's life should have purpose.

"Research on Ikigai tells us that we feel most fulfilled when our lives incorporate work we love and that helps society," said Pratt. "To enable more people to achieve their Ikigai, TRI is seeking new forms of 'automation with a human touch,' known as 'Jidoka' in the Toyota Production System, to develop capabilities that enhance rather than replace human abilities."

The United Nations states that by 2050, the global population aged 65 and older is expected to double. TRI Senior User Experience Designer Steffi Paepke noted that as the population ages in developed countries such as Japan, the demand for robotic assisted care will only increase.

TRI Vice President of Robotics Max Bajracharya said, "TRI's robotics research focuses on the home environment, because robots can provide the greatest assistance in achieving human accomplishments in this setting." "This is also one of the most complex environments for robots to master."

Robot learning simulation, fleet

"Acquiring large amounts of data is not practical," said Bajracharya. "We are studying how to learn from less data."

"Our work focuses on two key challenges: learning from human behavior to robots, and using simulation to train and validate robot behavior," he explained. "We view this idea as fleet learning, where when one machine learns something, they all learn. We believe this will be key to making robots practical in human environments."

TRI guides robots through telepresence and virtual reality systems, in which staff model tasks for the robots. TRI Vice President of Robot Research Russ Tedrake stated that combining human instructions with the ability to run multiple robots in parallel simulations will make it easier for robots to learn and share how to handle new objects.

He said, "We have used experiments with bowl-loading robots and clutter-clearing to automatically improve simulation behavior, thereby enhancing the performance of real robots."

Tedrake added that the Toyota Research Institute has gained valuable insights into manipulation. He demonstrated a soft bubble gripper resembling human finger pads, which includes internal cameras to record how different objects deform the bubbles.

Paepke said that TRI is also committed to building user engagement trust through a "principled" Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) approach.

TRI robots hanging out in the kitchen

Another new hardware item displayed by the Toyota Research Institute at 4x speed is its gantry kitchen robot, similar to the Flippy robot-on-rail system from Miso Robotics Inc. Instead of letting mobile robots occupy valuable floor space in home kitchens, TRI is experimenting with robot assistants suspended from the ceiling.

Paepcke said, "We rely heavily on observational research techniques such as contextual inquiries." "Before COVID-19, we visited the homes of elderly individuals in Japan with research partners, observed their daily lives, and noted friction points, challenges, and opportunities."

She said, "We observed that cooking is an activity cherished by many, although it becomes increasingly strenuous over time." "Sharing meals and feeding loved ones can also be a focal point for social connection, so providing the elderly with a fully automatic cooking robot or pre-cooked meals may be physically beneficial but emotionally harmful."

Bajracharya said that for gantry robots, there is a trade-off between changing the environment and providing assistance. Pratt added that reliability and cost need to be considered early in the design process.

Pratt said, "We are not only targeting people over 65 years old, but also their children and grandchildren, who will equip them with these robots." He said that TRI is considering various early adopters, health insurance companies, and builders who could integrate robots, such as kitchen gantries, into their designs.

Toyota Research Institute is dedicated to the future

TRI stated that its goal is to enable robots to keep people “in place,” extending their independence rather than sending them to expensive nursing homes.

Pratt said, “The difference between Toyota and other companies... What we really want to do is build a time machine.” He said that Toyota’s robots are not only for convenience or replacing heavy labor, but also aim to restore people’s ability to work and connect with their younger selves.

The Toyota Motor division is collaborating with Toyota Advanced Research Institute (TRI-AD) on other proof-of-concept projects. The company will soon be renamed Woven Planet Holdings. It includes the “Living Lab” Woven City and Woven Capital currently under construction in Japan.

Gill Pratt (Gill Pratt)

TRI CEO Gill Pratt (Gill Pratt). Source: Toyota Research Institute

Pratt told The Robot Report, “Woven Planet’s work in Japan is exceptionally challenging.” “Woven City is people-centric; it will connect us all. TRI has held (regular and nearly) meetings with the Woven City team, and we are excited to see this in the future.”

Woven Capital will collaborate with Toyota AI Ventures. The division invests in startups such as Intuition Robotics Ltd, which is testing the companion robot ElliQ for the elderly. For telepresence and social robots, their ability to help people connect more easily can bring psychological benefits, Pratt added.

However, due to the complexity of tasks, environments, and objects to handle (ranging from toys and tableware to clothing), consumers waiting for Jetsons robot Rosie must be patient.

Pratt said that the robots displayed in the virtual open lab are research models, not production models. TRI Executive Vice President and CFO Kelly Kay acknowledged that the commercialization of Toyota Research Institute’s home robots is still far off.

She said, “Robots cannot yet adapt to the unstructured environment of the home, which differs from the environment for performing repetitive tasks in factories.” “We know how to hand over promising applied research concepts to partners for practical development.”