Toyota to develop workman humanoid robot by 2005

TOKYO, : Japan’s top car maker Toyota will develop a humanoid robot designed to help factory workers and provide assistance in nursing care and rescue operations.

Toyota will announce details of the project in January and plans to unveil the as-yet-unnamed robot at the 2005 World Exposition in Japan, the business daily Nihon Keizai Shimbun said.

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Unlike Honda’s ASIMO, the world’s first two-legged walking robot unveiled in 2000, and Sony’s QRIO, the world’s first jogging robot revealed this month, Toyota’s robot will be used for ‘practical’ purposes, the daily said.

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Toyota hopes the new robot can help factory workers conduct physically demanding work and provide assistance in nursing care and rescue operations, the daily said but gave no financial figures involved in the project.

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