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The Japanese car firm Toyota might one start to mass-produce robots to help the elderly. According to Gill Pratt, head of the Toyota Research Institute (TRI), the firm is looking ahead into the distant future when there will robots that help out in homes. The firm could use the same methods it uses now to produce cars on a large scale, making the production of robots cheaper Mr Pratt said. Toyota has already shown an R2-D2-like robot designed to help the elderly, the sick and people in wheelchairs by picking up and carrying objects. Toyotal's home helper robot developer community and working prototype pictured The Japanese car manufacturer announced last year it would invest 1 billion ( 682 million) over the next five years.