Toyota Turns Sci-Fi into Reality with New Mecha Robot

01.12.2017

The new T-HR3 robot from Toyota allows users to fully immersive themselves in the robot control, offering real-time control via an exoskeleton suit.

Toyota has been quiet on the robotic innovation front for more than a decade. Its last innovation was the release of a bipedal robot with its own battery pack in 2005. Last week, Toyota unveiled its new T-HR3 robot, which looks to fulfill users’ dreams of controlling their very own Mecha Robot like in the blockbuster film Pacific Rim.

The new T-HR3 is the company’s third generation of a humanoid robot developed and designed by Toyota’s Partner Robot Division. The purpose of the robot will be to explore new technologies for safely managing interactions between it and its surroundings and fellow human operators. The T-HR3 will be used in home, medical facilities, construction sites, disaster-stricken areas, and space exploration.

T-HR3 has 16 controls commanding 29 individual robot body parts. The T-HR3 stands at 5 feet and 1 inches, and weighs 165 pounds. The robot is controlled via its Master Maneuvering System. The entire body of the robot can be operated instinctively from a set of wearable controls that map the hand, arm, and foot movements. The user sits in the controller chair and wears an exoskeleton suit, which gives the operator a full range of motion in the arms and allows the user to walk in place.