Toyota intends to develop a full line of personal assistant robots

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Toyota has announced it intends to develop a full line of humanoid robots to serve as personal assistants. It's an exciting announcement from a company that has the financial and political will to actually carry it out. Japan leads the world in robotics, and while the U.S. focuses on military robots (terminator, anyone?), Japan is working to actually improve our quality of life through helper robots.

In a few years, personal assistant robots will be able to fetch items (and remember where you put them), guard your house, clean up the clutter in your home, engage in basic conversations, play music, and -- someday -- do your laundry. These are the kinds of things that really matter in terms of quality of life. Who wouldn't want a live-in helper who could handle basic chores? Humanoid robots from Toyota offer precisely that promise.

Yes, it's all many years away, but today we finally have working robots like Roomba and Aibo. There are more than 150,000 Aibo robots in homes around the world right now, and Sony is just getting started. When you consider the combined efforts of Toyota, Sony and Honda, it's exciting to realize that helpful household robots are truly on the way.

I predict the humanoid robotics industry will someday dwarf the automobile industry and the software industry. This will be the largest single industry on the planet, with hundreds of billions of dollars to be made by the right companies. Too bad the U.S. government can't see this coming and try to support our own fledgling robotics research. Today, the U.S. is at least a decade behind Japan, and I don't see any changes coming. Kudos to Japan for investing in technology that really means something.
About the author: Mike Adams is a natural health researcher and author with a strong interest in personal health, the environment and the power of nature to help us all heal He has authored and published thousands of articles, interviews, consumers guides, and books on topics like health and the environment, impacting the lives of millions of readers around the world who are experiencing phenomenal health benefits from reading his articles. Adams is an independent journalist with strong ethics who does not get paid to write articles about any product or company. In 2007, Adams launched EcoLEDs, a maker of super bright LED light bulbs that are 1000% more energy efficient than incandescent lights. He's also a noted technology pioneer and founded a software company in 1993 that developed the HTML email newsletter software currently powering the NaturalNews subscriptions. Adams volunteers his time to serve as the executive director of the Consumer Wellness Center, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, and regularly pursues cycling, nature photography, Capoeira and Pilates. Known on the 'net as 'the Health Ranger,' Adams shares his ethics, mission statements and personal health statistics at www.HealthRanger.org


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