Mountain Goat-Inspired Robot Offers A New World Of Mobility To The Wheelchair-Bound–Watch

Mountain Goat-Inspired Robot Offers A New World Of Mobility To The Wheelchair-Bound–Watch

Toyota recently unveiled a four-legged mobility robot that can go where wheels cannot, and specializes in tasks that are difficult in a wheelchair such as climbing up stairs and positioning passengers to get into cars.

Debuted by the carmaker at the 2025 Japan Mobility Show, it consists of an ergonomic seat mounted on four mechanical legs that are designed to mimic some of the surest-footed animals on Earth like the mountain goat.

Called the Walk Me, it’s compact, adaptable, and represents a huge advancement for the company’s assisted mobility division.

Each leg can bend in multiple ways, lift, and move independently of the others to ensure that stability is maintained while walking over uneven ground or obstacles. They’re also covered with a soft and friendly-looking material to hide the mechanical components.

The system’s real showpiece is climbing stairs. One of the legs will test the step’s height, and determine how far the other legs have to push up to reach it. A suite of sensors and a LiDAR system continuously scan the surround for obstacles or potential banana skins like a child’s toy car.

Distribution of force and weight between the legs feed into a calculation on the seat position, which is adjusted automatically to ensure the user isn’t tipped off in any direction. Sensors in the front apply a braking system if something moves quickly across its path.

Reporting by tech outlets reveals that a battery capable of operating for a whole 12-hour day is hidden beneath the seat, while voice-activated commands such as “kitchen” or “faster” can guide the legs directly, as can a set of handles positioned alongside the seat that contain manual controls.

MOBILITY ROBOTICS:

• Italian-Made Exoskeleton Gets Disabled Users Walking and Standing
• ‘Wearable Muscles’ Restore Mobility in Those Who Have Trouble Moving Their Arms
• First Time Someone With Cut Spinal Cord is Able to Walk Freely, Thanks to New Swiss Technology

When it’s time to dismount the chair, the folding system retracts the legs similar to how a goat or other ungulate lays down, and in 30 seconds the unit becomes small enough to put into the back of all but the smallest cars

Two-footed human locomotion has been described as the continual avoidance of falling. The vast majority of animals that move about on legs use four—it’s just much easier and more balanced. With the Walk Me, Toyota have used Natural Selection as an inspiration to create a brilliant answer to Japan’s narrow streets, hilly terrain, and reliance on public transit—areas a wheelchair struggles to navigate.

WATCH a video below…