Toyota Motor Corporation / Toyota Research Institute (TRI)

Toyota enters this group of ten as the company with the longest résumé: the group was founded in 1937, and in humanoid robotics it works on two tracks. The first is its own Toyota Partner Robot program, from which the T-HR3 emerged, shown in November 2017. The robot is 154 cm tall and teleoperated: an operator sits at a station, the machine reproduces their movements, and the force of contact returns to them as force feedback. The second track is the Toyota Research Institute (TRI) in Los Altos, California, where Punyo is being built, a research humanoid of the upper body specializing in soft, whole-body manipulation. Both models have prototype status. They are platforms showing that a robot can work in place of a person in dangerous locations, not products ready for sale. The company is listed on the Tokyo exchange (TYO:7203). Toyota's history shows a different philosophy from startups: no sales promises, but long, patient research. A similar approach to remote presence can be seen at Honda Motor Co. in the Honda Avatar Robot.

Both models are prototypes. Toyota T-HR3 is a teleoperated humanoid from 2017: 154 cm, 75 kg, 32 axes. It is controlled from an external station weighing about 170 kg, with force feedback, and according to available information was never sold. Think of work in a contaminated place a human cannot enter, but can send their hands into. Punyo from 2024 is a different idea: only the upper half of the body, no legs, but soft, tactile grasping with the whole torso, like carrying a large box in your arms rather than with your fingers. Target groups are research, medicine, disaster response and the home. A comparison with Atlas shows how differently other companies approach robots. The basics of manipulation are described in “How Does a Humanoid Robot Work”. An important caveat: with no price and no sales, these robots can't be compared with commercial offerings. Their value lies in research that may later reach other products of the group. The article “VLA Models: How AI Controls Humanoid Robots in 2026”, where we describe how robots learn to grasp, is a helpful companion. For the reader, more important than the specs is that both projects bet on touch, not on strength.

Toyota does not need funding in the startup sense: it is a listed corporation (TYO:7203), and humanoid robotics is one of its long-term research projects. There is no public valuation of the division or headcount. Unlike Chinese competitors such as UBTECH Robotics and Unitree Robotics, which already deliver robots to customers, Toyota remains at the technology-demonstration stage. Boston Dynamics is closer to deployment. A curiosity: Korea's Rainbow Robotics ran pilots with the RB-Y1 in Toyota factories, so the group is sometimes also a customer of outside suppliers. In this field Toyota is not fighting for customers but for knowledge. Its competition is the whole world of humanoid research, and the first measure of success will be the moment one of the prototypes leaves the lab for a factory or hospital. So far there is no such evidence in public information. That doesn't mean the project is insignificant: corporations with this kind of backing can patiently wait for the technology to mature.

Toyota has no humanoid robot offering for the Polish market. Both models are marked as unavailable in the country and are not for sale at all. No Polish deployments or trials have been found. Anyone wanting to follow the research results should look at Toyota Research Institute publications, not at a Polish distributor. We describe the Polish robotics ecosystem in “Polish Robotics Companies”. A Polish university interested in soft manipulation can, however, draw on the scientific publications, which requires no hardware purchase. Companies seeking real humanoid deployments should look instead to manufacturers with a finished product.

Toyota doesn't sell humanoids and has no intention of hurrying: T-HR3 and Punyo are research that may one day change care and industry. For the Polish reader this is reading about a direction, not about a purchase. If you're looking for a robot to put to work, this page is not for you. If you want to understand where research on teleoperation and soft grasping is heading, read on and keep watching. Context is provided by the articles on “Humanoid Robot Market Forecasts”.