home robot hanging upside down from the ceiling

Gantry Robot is a home robot concept model introduced by Toyota Research Institute (TRI) under Toyota.

The gantry robot is an inverted robot that is installed on the ceiling and connected with a pedestal. The pedestal part is made of aluminum and is a structure that is installed on a mobile girder suspended from the ceiling. The gantry robot body does not require a battery because the beam can accommodate power cables, etc.

Because the gantry robot is suspended from the ceiling, it can even clean refrigerators that are out of the reach of humans. For safety, it runs slower than humans, and cleaning the kitchen can be done at night when the family is sleeping. The arm is in the shape of scissors, so it can grab objects. You can open and close the refrigerator door with a plastic bottle, or store plastic bottles in the rack.

The gantry robot was originally expected to connect a wheeled pedestal like the Roomba, but it required a huge battery capacity and computing power, so the pedestal part became huge. For this reason, this conserve model chose the ceiling-mounted style. The development team said that the Galtree robot aims to not only clean, transport dishes, and carry luggage, but also cook and support the elderly as one of its goals.

In addition to the gantry robot, TRI also announced a robotic arm called the Soft Bubble Gripper. The robot is made of a resilient material that deforms when it comes into contact with an object, and the friction force can be flexibly changed by changing the material pressure according to the situation by a depth camera that detects the shape of the material mounted inside and estimates the surface shear force. . Related information can be found here.