:: Xinhuanet – English ::: Toyota to commercialize humanoid robot by 2010: report

TOKYO, March 11 (Xinhuanet) — Toyota Motor Corp. aims to commercialize humanoid robots around 2010 by establishing a section specializing in their development early next year, a major Japanese business daily reported Thursday.

The leading automaker will consolidate the resources of group companies and business partners to achieve the objective, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun said.

The section will be established within Toyota’s production technology headquarters and staffed with several hundred people, including robot engineers from the automaker’s technology headquarters and those from Toyota’s technology lab in Shizuoka Prefecture.

Toyota is currently developing a humanoid robot for the 2005 Aichi World Exposition at its production technology headquarters.