Toyota Research Institute (TRI), Los Altos, California, USA

Toyota Research Institute CEO Dr. Gill Pratt presents "Guardian for All" vision of vehicle automation during the Toyota Press Conference at CES 2019 on Jan. 7 in Las Vegas. Presentation includes introduction of TRI's P4 automated driving research vehicle.

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The Toyota Research Institute (TRI) is focused on creating and proving the technological breakthroughs necessary to make assistive home robots feasible. TRI is teaching a general purpose robot to perform useful human-level tasks in real homes. We believe teaching a robot tasks is a promising first step to achieving our broader vision of Fleet Learning, specifically for assisting and empowering people in their home. And we hope that sharing this progress benefits others throughout the robotics community.

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Today, Toyota Research Institute (TRI) unveiled new robotics capabilities aimed at solving complex tasks in home environments. Specifically, TRI roboticists were able to train robots to understand and operate in complicated situations that confuse most other robots, including recognizing and responding to transparent and reflective surfaces in a variety of circumstances.

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Aimee Goncalves, Naveen Kuppuswamy, Andrew Beaulieu, Avinash Uttamchandani, Katherine M. Tsui, Alex Alspach
Toyota Research Institute (TRI)

Abstract— The manipulation of large objects and safe operation in the vicinity of humans are key capabilities of a general purpose domestic robotic assistant. We present the design of a soft, tactile-sensing humanoid upper-body robot and demonstrate whole-body rich-contact manipulation strategies for handling large objects. We demonstrate our hardware design philosophy for outfitting off-the-shelf hard robot arms and other components with soft tactile-sensing modules, including: (i) low-cost, cut-resistant, contact pressure localizing coverings for the arms, (ii) paws based on TRI's Soft-bubble sensors for the end effectors, and (iii) compliant force/geometry sensors for the coarse geometry sensing chest. We leverage the mechanical intelligence and tactile sensing of these modules to develop and demonstrate motion primitives for whole-body grasping. We evaluate the hardware's effectiveness in achieving grasps of varying strengths over a variety of large domestic objects. Our results demonstrate the importance of exploiting softness and tactile sensing in contact-rich manipulation strategies, as well as a path forward for whole-body force-controlled interactions with the world.

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Toyota Research Institute has put what looks like little puffy oven mitts on its robots' grippers so they can handle and identify things by touch the way we naturally do. We got an exclusive early peek.

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Humanity. Science. Engineering. Toyota Research Institute (TRI) combines these elements as we explore technologies that address some of the world’s biggest challenges, from aging society to climate change to basic human understanding.

Our mission is to improve the quality of life for individuals and society using technology that amplifies - rather than replaces - human capabilities.

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