Toyota plans to deploy 400,000 robots in its manufacturing operations to help automate production.

Toyota Motor Corporation is advancing a large-scale robot deployment plan, aiming to introduce 400,000 self-developed robots into its production bases worldwide. These include humanoid robots that can learn skills from workers, driving the transformation of the production system towards a human-machine collaborative model.

On September 18, Nikkei Asia reported that Toyota and its group companies plan to invest approximately 1 trillion yen annually starting in 2028 for the renovation and reconstruction of their global factories. This includes deploying 150,000 robots in Toyota's own factories and 250,000 robots in factories owned by the group, covering approximately 60 factories worldwide.

Toyota Executive Vice President Hiroki Nakajima stated, "Our goal is to create a world where robots coexist with humans, rather than replace them." This means that this automation upgrade is not simply about replacing human labor, but rather about further integrating robots into the production process.

Manufacturing experience is shifting from "craftsmen" to intelligent robots.

One of the core products of this project is the ELEY (Embodied Learning Robot for Enhanced Yield) embodied learning robot. Weighing approximately 50 kilograms, ELEY uses a wheeled chassis and a two-finger robotic arm, enabling it to autonomously learn fine motor skills by observing workers' actual operations.

Specifically, workers can wear assistive tools designed to resemble ELEY's fingers to repeatedly perform standardized operations, while the robot learns the movements through visual observation and continuously optimizes its execution. It was reported that in mid-September, ELEY demonstrated folding T-shirts at Toyota's European regional headquarters, and after two weeks and approximately 1,500 training sessions, it was able to complete the task with near-perfect accuracy.

Toyota plans to further share robot training data across its global factories, enabling robots in different plants to quickly master the same skills. As the training system matures, robots will not only be able to learn from workers in the future, but also pass on the operating methods they have learned to new employees, forming a closed loop of skills transfer from "humans teaching robots" to "robots teaching humans".

This system is built upon Toyota's vast manufacturing network. Toyota currently operates approximately 60 factories worldwide, employing about 18,000 "takumi" (craftsmen) skilled workers. The manufacturing experience and standardized operations accumulated by these workers over many years will serve as an important data source for the robots' continuous learning. At the same time, Toyota plans to invest approximately 1 trillion yen annually in upgrading its factories, laying the foundation for the large-scale deployment of robots in its global production system.

Risk warning and disclaimerInvesting involves risk; please exercise caution. This article does not constitute personal investment advice and does not take into account the specific investment objectives, financial situation, or needs of individual users. Users should consider whether any opinions, views, or conclusions in this article are suitable for their specific circumstances. Any investment decisions made based on this information are at your own risk.