TOPIO Dio: The Skillful Waiter & Bartender

We think we've found the key to making robots not frightening. Sunglasses. We have no idea how other creators out there didn't think of this before, but we're glad to see it's finally here. The TOPIO Dio, coming out of Vietnam, is Tosy's first robot venture, and we have to say that we're glad they're making the Dio. It looks awesome.

The TOPIO Dio is a "life-sized" service robot. It stands at 125cm tall, weighs 45kg, and thankfully it's not bipedal. Instead, the designers made Dio roll around on three wheels, which are housed under a large base. Dio can be controlled from the Internet, thanks to the WiFi built inside of it. Additionally, it features 28 joints, has a built-in camera, and a sensor that will help to prevent it from hitting things. Like bookshelves, tables, and humans.

As you can see from the images, Tosy is aiming the TOPIO Dio for the "hospitality and restaurant" market. We can definitely see this little guy rolling around, serving drinks on trays. Those sunglasses make it just the coolest robot ever. Hopefully Dio gets picked up somewhere out there, including outside of Vietnam, especially considering it's supposedly 75% cheaper to make than comparable robots. What do you say, McDonald's? Get some robots to bring us our food?

[via CrunchGear]