Toyota's robot army will be in the home by 2010

Toyota, no doubt still laughing at the Honda Asimo stair malfunction videos (55th view, still funny), is boosting its own robot production – and reckons it’ll have two models ready for consumers to consume by 2010.

Robot one is essentially useless – it can play the violin. That’s going to be more of an annoyance than a help around the home, so strike that one off the 2010 Christmas present list.

A robot, using all our electricity, then playing the violin while we’re trying to watch telly? What a ludicrous idea. The eventual plan is to stop it playing the violin and teach its clever, 17-joint-using arms to use tools in the workplace and hospitals. So it might be quite good when the relevant firmware becomes available.

Toyota’s second home robot is a million times more exciting. It’s a personal mobility robot, that’s pretty much a big, comfortable chair that can be used to get around the place. So it’s more of a “wheelchair” than a robot, but anything that could potentially cut down on the amount of tiresome walking we have to do will be a welcome addition to Life 2.0.

(Via Akihabara News)

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