We all know the “mechanical musicians” of Toyota: the violin or trumpet playing robots.

But were they touching us?

It may not seem likely that they may have a direct impact on our daily lives anytime soon. Partly, because not everyone of us knows how to play the violin or trumpet and therefore it is very difficult to appreciate what it takes to master these instruments. Further, if you are not an engineer it is hard to imagine the meta- and learning skills required to create a machine that virtuously plays an instrument.
To most of us – and I spoke to some – it was not very colorful to watch some machine do something we cannot fully comprehend. The robots remained something very distant.

But watch now! These robotic musicians will soon be able to run like this newly unveiled running robot:

Does this humaniod-like thing  make you think? These movements – don’t they seem real? I think this is colorful. I can imagine how one of these knocks my door any moment …

This running robot has impressive specifications according to the Artificial Intelligence and Robotics Blog: the Partner Robot (as it is called by toyota) weights only 50 kgs and is only 130 cm tall. That’s a very practical size giving the possiblity for countless missions in our daily lifes. Potentially it fits through your door, it could stand next to you while cooking, it could bring the morning newspaper, mail and milk right to your breakfast table (which of course the robot laid). It could instantly document what you are doing on twitter and have its own facebook account and be your friend … (uh!?)

But besides these humanoid phantasies, roborts are being developed for short-distance personal transport at home, for crossing streets or moving through a city in a combination of personal and public transport systems. Transporting patients, bed-bath support and other special abilities in the field of medical care or nursing are being researched.

So in reality there are plenty of areas where robots can be made useful besides in manufactureing.

I don’t know what you think! But I believe that PAHs (Personal Assistant for Humans) for the mainstream will surely become a hot market in the not too distant future!

If you are new to the field of robotics I recommend skimming over this one page (pdf-file) on the development and future initiatives of the partner robots. You get the idea of the usefulness of robots even quicker by looking at Toyota’s overview of the project to develop partner robots designed to function as personal assistants for humans.