The theme of Toyota's CES press conference on Monday was Woven City, a community the automaker plans to build at the foot of Mount Fuji. Robotics will undoubtedly play a big role in the company's efforts to automate as much as possible of the city of 2,000 people, including self-driving cars and drones that will escort people home after dark.
The company's research arm, TRI, is working hard to improve the way robots learn, which is also an important part of it. The institute recently announced a partnership with Boston Dynamics to bring its imitation learning technology to Atlas, a new electric humanoid robot.
Delicate tasks like folding T-shirts are a great place to start. CEO Akio Toyoda demonstrated how the company taught a robotic arm to fold Japanese T-shirts. Starting with a pair of manual grippers, a human demonstrates the correct way to fold a shirt. Toyota says the system can master this skill overnight.
Of course, folding a T-shirt is just one example of dexterity. It is worth noting that many of the 2,000 residents planning to move to WovenCity are retirees. Over the past few decades, Japan has increasingly used automation technology to help its aging population.