Toyota plans to sell the Kirobo Mini, a communications robot, at dealerships in Japan sometime next year.
Looks like the movie iRobot may be coming to life as Toyota announced it plans to sell the “Kirobo Mini” communications partner robot through its car dealerships across Japan next year.
The little robot can actually engage in casual conversation with its owners. The miniature “friend” has the ability to respond to user emotions and will “grow” by remembering user preferences and past events, Toyota notes.
While the robots in the film provided a variety of services, such as house cleaning, daycare and security, these little guys can go anywhere as they are just about four inches tall. They’re likely to be less expensive than their film cousins too coming in at just under $400 not including taxes.
The nationwide rollout will be preceded by presales at designated dealers in Tokyo and Aichi Prefecture this winter.
It can talk for about 2.5 hours before it needs to be recharged, Toyota says, and that takes three hours. The Mini is actually born out of a robot the maker produced for use on the International Space Station last year.
(Toyota’s new robot signals area of growth for maker. For more, Click Here.)
At just under 4 inches tall, the Kirobo Mini can go almost anywhere with its owner.
The Kirobo Mini can turn its head toward the person speaking and talk while moving its head and hands. The range of gestures and conversation abilities are mainly made possible by connecting Kirobo Mini via Bluetooth to smartphones installed with a dedicated app.
A built-in camera enables Kirobo Mini to recognize people’s facial expressions, through which it tries to detect their emotions so that it can accordingly adjust its manner of speaking and moving. Kirobo Mini can also converse based on information drawn from the vehicle or home.
(Click Here to get details about Toyota’s Human Service Robot.)
Kiboro Mini is a manifestation of the Toyota Heart Project, which aims to develop a distinctly humanlike interaction between man and machine in a format different from automobiles based on the same fundamental concept of “Inspiring the Heart, Inspiring You”, which Toyota applies to its automobile manufacturing.
By providing people opportunities to live with Kirobo Mini, Toyota hopes to contribute to making life and society more abundant, the automaker noted. The Japanese maker now has developed what it calls a “partner robot” designed to help human with simple, mundane tasks that ideally allows people to be more efficient or to improve their quality of life. The company feels strongly enough about the prospects that its created a division dedicated to the development.
(To see more about Toyota’s robotic collaboration with MIT, Stanford, Click Here.)
Automakers have been attempting to build functional robots for decades and Toyota isn’t the only automaker with robot ambitions. Honda has ASIMO, which it has been developing for more than a decade, and more recently Yamaha introduced its new Motobot, the first motorcycle-riding robot.