Robotics

Toyota Motor Corp. has sold enough cars to put one outside every Japanese home. Now it wants to put robots inside those homes.

The country that brought robots to car factories looks set to stay resolutely old-school in agriculture as it seeks to attract more foreign workers to replenish an aging workforce.

Tokyo is one of the biggest cities in the world, but it also might be the loneliest. So much so that its people may need to be taught how to love by a robot.

Last year, Huawei Technologies Co. and wireless carrier SoftBank Group Corp. jointly demonstrated advanced 5G technology by pitting a human against a robotic arm in a game of air hockey in Japan.

Small robotic explorers and a lander loaded on the Japanese asteroid explorer Hayabusa2 have collected valuable data after successfully landing on the asteroid Ryugu, attracting global attention for the accomplishment.

Humanoid robots started introducing sightseeing spots in Yokohama to visitors at the observation deck of the Landmark Tower on Tuesday.

“Welcome to our avatar cafe,” said a real woman’s voice, coming from a robot. This was the Avatar Cafe “DAWN ver. β,” and the robots were being operated via remote control by people with severe physical disabilities working from their homes or elsewhere.

The “aibo” robot dog is being used in research at the National Center for Child Health and Development in Setagaya Ward, Tokyo, to see how much it can comfort children who have been hospitalized for long periods.

The tranquility of a warm autumn morning in Chiba Prefecture is broken by three shapes streaking through the sky above a rugby field.They move so fast it is difficult for the eye to follow, flitting this way and that like angry dragonflies and filling the air with high-pitched shrieks.

A cafe featuring robot waiters remotely controlled from home by people with severe physical disabilities has been launched in Minato Ward, Tokyo.