Toyota’s robots can do way more than just shoot hoops now, it seems. Toyota Research Institute (TRI) has just shared a new video showcasing its robot’s new capabilities, and in it we get to see the machine doing a few everyday household chores.
The robot can now wipe surfaces clean, which is timely considering the ongoing pandemic. It can now also pick stuff up from a table, for example, and move objects around the house.
“Our goal is to build robotic capabilities that amplify, not replace, human abilities,” said TRI vice president of robotics Max Bajracharya. “Training robots to understand how to operate in home environments poses special challenges because of the diversity and complexity of our homes where small tasks can add up to big challenges.”
TRI also takes pride in its robot’s ability to identify and interact with reflective or transparent objects, which usually confuse today’s robots.
“To overcome this, TRI roboticists developed a novel training method to perceive the 3D geometry of the scene while also detecting objects and surfaces,” added Bajracharya. “This combination enables researchers to use large amounts of synthetic data to train the system.”
Coincidentally, Toyota’s new video was also launched on National Selfie Day, and as such, the company also included some neat bonus footage of its robot taking a simple selfie. It also appears to be vlogging in the clip, but we reckon it has a lot of work left to do before it takes over YouTube. Anyway, you can check out the video below:
