Robot helper picks up items, supports disabled

Toyota's new robot glides around like R2-D2 and is devoted to a single task: picking things up.

HSR, short for "human support robot", comes with a single mechanical arm that can grasp objects of various shapes and sizes and also pick up smaller items with a tiny suction cup.

It doesn't have any other tricks in its repertoire, except for a computer panel on its head for surfing the Internet. A person can also access the robot from another computer and use it like a camera-phone.