Toyota’s New Human Support Robot

Toyota has remained one of the best car producers for years. They have produced enough cars to fill every Japanese home. Now, the motor company is looking beyond auto mechanics and into robotics. Popular for its production of very stylish cars, the motor company believes there is a need for robots in the everyday activities of human life for companionship, house chores, and other essential needs to ease humans’ difficulties. Robots for most people is the human-looking machine with weird moving parts. However, technology has advanced, and various other types of robots are seen in several spheres of life. For example, nowadays, it is easy to enjoy games and get a TrueBlue casino bonus while your home helper does some work for you.

In the same way, within our homes, there are home helper bots. That is, machines that are programmed to do the tasks humans would otherwise have had to do. Looking around the Japanese population, one can quickly identify the growing society of older people. More and more people are reaching the age where they need human assistance for simple and basic needs. This means more attention needs to be focused on offering care to them. With the world looking for easier ways to do things, Toyota has created helper bots who will serve humans as a caregiver or a helper dog. In this post, we will explore the new Toyota human support helper bot and find out the origin, features, benefits and possibilities of this technology.

What is Toyota’s Human Support System?

The Human Support Robot, often abbreviated as HSR, is a machine designed to support and help with certain activities at home. This machine works on the operation of voice commands and can also be controlled using a tablet computer. Additionally, the HSR is capable of recognizing surroundings for self-movement. The HSR’s lightweight cylindrical body makes it possible to fold its arm and extend it, making it possible to carry out the following tasks around the house. Here are some more advantages of the home helper:

1. There is a function of grabbing any objects from the ground.
2. The extendable body features can suck up thin objects and items.
3. It can retrieve the items placed in higher places easily.
4. HSR can offer assistance with curtain opening and other simple tasks around the house.
5. The HSR can smoothly move around the house in any direction, thanks to its omnidirectional wheels.

What’s HSR’s purpose?

Due to the continuous rise in the elderly population, Toyota is looking to ease their household tasks by providing them with the extendable HSR. The UN has predicted that in the next 30 years, the population of people above 65 years will double, and in approximately 2050, it is expected to hit over 1.5 billion. It is proposed that the Human Support Robot will help the elderly, including people who find it difficult to move without being supported in their daily activities.

Although Artificial Intelligence (AI) is not to displace human care, it’s good to have an option. With this, human communication with the HSR becomes more accessible as it executes its duties.

As people and society grow old, the demand for caregiving will rise continuously – a system that requires the support of the elderly ones who find it difficult to do anything independently. The introduction of the HSR and Automation will significantly help free up time to stay longer with friends and loved ones. It will also help in executing work tasks.

When Did the HSR Work Begin?

In 2012, the first news about the HSR broke out from the car giant company Toyota. The news-breaking took place during the unveiling of a prototype, adding to the Toyota Robot series. The development of the initial prototype was in cooperation with the Japan Service Dog Association, which helped the car manufacturing company to outline their needs and individuals’ needs with the mobility of the limb.

However, the HSR team found it easy to develop various functions for concentrating on retrieving items located in different places, especially those that are high, dropped objects to be picked up, or things that are inconvenient to hold.

Step-by-Step Improvements

As discussed earlier, Toyota came up with the invention of robots, having realized the increasing number of the aged ones, thus, leading to less productivity and incapacitation to carry out chores. Since talks about robot aids, several other industries have accepted the use of robots to ease tasks and activities. One industry that has greatly seen innovation in bots is the gambling industry. These inbuilt robots make everything easy and can quickly make calculations on their own. As software, these robots do everything from playing games to determine who can win. The innovation and spread have gone beyond what humans ever imagined. In like manner, the home helper robots have also seen great changes in the last decade or so.

Many improvements have taken place to the robot, most of which came from feedback from patients, researchers, and workers in the health line system. A decade ago, the giant car manufacturing company Toyota, in cooperation with the Foundation for Yokohama Rehabilitation Service, tested the robot in homes of limb-disabled people. Toyota, later on, was able to incorporate the feedback from these people into development while joining many researchers in creating the community of Human Support Robot developers. The community joined hands in making development quick and practically adopting the Human Support Robot.

What Are the Specs of the Human Support Robot?

Conclusion

With the increase in the number of elderly persons, it is expected that each one will be relieved of their responsibilities, allowing them to delegate their errands to the humanlike machines. What could be simpler and better than that? You don’t have to be concerned about leaving your elderly relatives alone at home as you can be sure that they will be assisted at any moment.

The fact remains that care robots are a topic of great discussion and not just for the elderly but for everyone who is bedridden or has limited mobility due to various situations. We can look forward to a world where every person is not left alone, where the collaboration between people and machines is easy and seamless and where younger people can have more time for their own business and more freedom from caregiver demands.