Toyota's violin‐playing robot

Purpose – The paper aims to report on Toyota's violin‐playing robot and Toyota's strategy for its “partner robot” business for the future. Design/methodology/approach – The work is based on an interview with the R&D team of Toyota. Findings – The paper finds that, in view of Toyota's robot business as a core business for the future, the company is devoting huge resources in the development of fundamental technologies that should support service robotics. The violin robot is not the goal of Toyota, but only a demonstration of Toyota's ongoing research and development on dexterity. Originality/value – The paper elaborates how the violin‐playing robot plays a violin.