Toyota Research Institute Unveils Ceiling Mounted Home Robot Helper Concept

Toyota’s Research Institute (TRI) has unveiled its view on the future of home robotics. TRI’s ‘Hanging Butler’ robot is built to hang from a special set of tracks built into a home’s ceiling. This gives it a few of advantages 1) it has a simple time learning the layout, it doesn’t need to learn complex paths around obstacles; 2) this also means the robot won’t get under foot as someone tries to navigate around their own home; 3) It can fold up tightly to the ceiling when it’s not in use, so it effectively takes up zero usable space. It should be able to perform mundane tasks such as loading a dishwasher, wiping surfaces and cleaning clutter, the company said in a statement. In part this would be achieved with the utilisation of a soft gripper which would allow it to grab and manipulate objects such as dishes without breaking them.