Toyota Motor Corporation (NYSE: TM) (LSE: TYT) (TYO: 7203), a Japan-based automaker, has unveiled a robotic helping hand that can provide assistance around the house fetching and carrying for the elderly or immobile.
The robot is a compact cylinder-shaped machine 37 centimetres in diameter and up to 130 centimetres tall, and can be remotely controlled by a tablet computer to recognise items it is sent to fetch. It does so through the use of an arm and small suction-cap.
Takashi Yamamoto, general manager at Toyota’s advanced technology engineering department, said, ‘The robot still has challenges such as selecting items from a drawer containing all sorts of things, for example. Finding an item by itself before getting it to the person controlling it is the most difficult challenge.’