Toyota’s new robot can play the violin

Toyota is of course very well known for making cars, but not really for making robots – this is Honda domain. That being said, Toyota has been working on this robot for 3 years, and has now decided that it is ready for public viewing.

The Toyota violin robot is performing daily at the Japanese Pavilion, at the The Shanghai World Expo. Here’s a short video of the robot performing a distinctly Chinese tune at the Expo:

While I don’t think that the robot will be putting orchestra players out of work anytime soon, the technology involved in manipulating the violin bow and fretting the strings is quite amazing.