Robotics & Automation News

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toyota

Toyota robots to help at Tokyo 2020 Olympics

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Toyota Motor Corporation, as a worldwide partner of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, aims to provide mobility solutions that go beyond providing official vehicles for the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020.

One way Toyota is doing this is by participating in the Tokyo 2020 Robot Project, led by the Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, that brings the government, Tokyo Metropolitan government, as well as Games’ partners together with experts in the field of robotics.

At Tokyo 2020, the robots to be introduced by Toyota will be used to support the mobility of people at various locations and venues.

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Freedom Robotics receives $6.6 million in seed funding

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Freedom Robotics, which provides cloud and on-device software for monitoring, control and management of robots and robotic fleets, has closed a $6.6m seed round.

The funding was led by Initialized Capital, with Toyota AI Ventures, Liquid 2 Ventures, Andrew Miklas from S28 Capital, and James Lindenbaum, alongside existing investors Green Cow Ventur­e Capital, Justin Kan, Josh Buckley, Kevin Mahaffey, and Arianna Simpson.

Freedom Robotics creates tools and infrastructure that all robotics companies require but are not core to their product or value creation.

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Denso and Toyota to set up R&D joint venture for in-vehicle semiconductors

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Denso Corporation and Toyota Motor Corporation have agreed to establish a joint venture for research and advanced development of next-generation, in-vehicle semiconductors. The two companies will study the details and aim to establish the new company in April 2020.

Recently, electronic controls have been increasingly introduced in vehicles, the number of in-vehicle semiconductors has also grown, and the performance of these semiconductors has continuously improved.

To create a future of mobility that is safe and sustainable, it is necessary to develop next-generation semiconductors that are integral to technology innovations, such as connected cars, automated driving, sharing mobility and electrification.

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NEDO, Sharp, and Toyota to begin public road trials of electrified vehicles equipped with high-efficiency solar batteries

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NEDO, Sharp Corporation, and Toyota Motor plan to commence public road trials of electrified vehicles equipped with high-efficiency solar batteries later this month.

The trials aim to assess the effectiveness of improvements in cruising range and fuel efficiency of electrified vehicles equipped with high-efficiency solar batteries.

To facilitate the execution of this trial, Sharp modularized its world-class, high-efficiency solar battery cells (conversion efficiency of 34 percent+), previously developed for a NEDO-led project, to create an onboard solar battery panel. [Read more…] about NEDO, Sharp, and Toyota to begin public road trials of electrified vehicles equipped with high-efficiency solar batteries

Toyota and Subaru to jointly develop battery electric vehicles

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Toyota Motor Corporation and Subaru Corporation are to jointly develop a platform dedicated to battery electric vehicles (BEVs) for midsize and large passenger vehicles and to jointly develop a C-segment-class BEV SUV model for sale under each company’s own brand.

The two companies will combine their respective strengths, such as Subaru all-wheel-drive technologies and Toyota vehicle electrification technologies,  to create attractive BEVs.

Ever since concluding an agreement on business collaboration in 2005, Toyota and Subaru have been deepening their cooperation in various fields, including development, production, and sales.

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IOC takes delivery of zero emission hydrogen fuel cell vehicles from Toyota

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A fleet of Toyota Mirai zero-emission hydrogen fuel cell cars has been delivered to the International Olympic Committee  in Lausanne, Switzerland as a key part of the organisation’s mobility plan.

The eight fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEV) were unveiled on the eve of World Environment Day at Olympic House, the IOC’s new sustainability-driven headquarters to be inaugurated on 23 June 2019.

To allow refuelling of the vehicles, a temporary hydrogen fuelling station – one of the first in Switzerland – will be installed at the new headquarters, before a public station is commissioned nearby.

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Panasonic and Toyota to establish joint venture for town development

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Panasonic and Toyota have concluded contracts aimed toward the establishment of a new joint venture related to the town development business.

Both companies aim to fuse the mobility services initiatives promoted by Toyota and the “lifestyle updates” initiatives spearheaded by Panasonic.

A rapid change is expected in this business due to the accelerated deployment of IoT technologies in home appliances, household equipment, etc., as well as the evolution in mobility, such as CASE (Connected, Autonomous, Shared and Electric) and MaaS (Mobility as a Service), a new concept of providing services by connecting cars, public transportation and other means of transportation through IT.

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Exoskeleton market projected to grow to $6 billion

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The current robotics limelight tends to focus on the ability of new innovations to automate tasks, but a less publicized development is taking place whereby passive exoskeletons have been slowly deployed and adopted to help augment the capability of human workers.

Exoskeleton popularization through passive suits will provide a base for increased resources for powered suits, which will eventually provide significant augmentative capability to the industrial workforce.

By 2028, global Exoskeleton revenues will reach $5 billion with hundreds of thousands of active exoskeletons being deployed, according to ABI Research. The research consultancy’s findings are on its report, Exoskeletons for Industrial Use Cases.

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Toyota introduces station for the production and supply of hydrogen from renewable energy

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Toyota Motor Corporation (Toyota) has newly introduced ‘SimpleFuel’ to its Motomachi Plant in Toyota City, Aichi Prefecture, Japan.

SimpleFuel is a small water electrolysis-based machine for hydrogen generation and filling that can produce, store, and supply hydrogen by making use of electricity generated from solar power.

It uses electricity from solar panels at the plant site to produce low-carbon hydrogen from the electrolysis of water, which is then supplied to fuel-cell (FC) forklifts after it is compressed and pressurised.

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Toyota premieres own-brand battery electric vehicles

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Toyota unveiled its C-HR and IZOA battery electric vehicles (BEVs) on the opening day of Auto Shanghai 2019.

The C-HR and IZOA will be the first BEVs to launch in China under the Toyota brand. Sales of the new models are expected to start from 2020.

Toyota also displayed other electrified vehicles, such as hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) variants for the RAV4 and the Alphard/Vellfire in China, as well as the Corolla and Levin plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) series, launched in March 2019.

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