Toyota, Yaskawa deploy AI robots in GR Kart production

Toyota GAZOO Racing and Yaskawa Electric have begun using an AI-equipped robot to weld frames for the GR Kart, taking technology first developed for race-car roll cages into a regular production process.

The system has been operating since September at the Gamagori GR Kart Workshop in Aichi Prefecture, Japan. It uses Yaskawa Electric’s Motoman NEXT robot, which can check the condition of the frame before and during welding, inspect completed welds and make corrections when needed.

The work grew out of a welding problem Toyota encountered through motorsports.

Toyota Motor Corp. chairman Akio Toyoda visited the Toyota GAZOO Racing World Rally Team in Finland in 2023 and learned that fabricating a roll cage at the site could take two to three weeks.

GR later worked with Yaskawa Electric on a faster method called Sequence Freezing Arc Welding or SFA. The technology was developed in 2024 and cut roll cage production to about three days.

SFA also improved weld strength and allowed weight to be reduced. The process has since been used on cars competing in Japan’s Super Taikyu Series.

Yaskawa and GR then applied what they learned from SFA to robotic welding.

The Motoman NEXT can recognize differences in the frame before choosing how to carry out the weld. Among the conditions it checks are gaps between pipes and temperature. Once the welding is finished, the robot carries out its own quality inspection and can correct work that does not meet the required standard.

This differs from conventional industrial robots that usually repeat a programmed sequence under closely controlled conditions. The new system gives the robot more responsibility for deciding what to do when actual conditions differ from one frame to another.

GR is now using the technology to produce the steel frames of its entry-level racing kart. Toyota said the application has also helped lower the cost of producing the GR Kart.

The kart went on sale in Japan in September as part of GR’s effort to make grassroots motorsports more accessible. It uses a 215cc engine and weighs 83 kilograms, with a suggested retail price of 385,000 yen in Japan.

The welding project follows Toyota’s long-standing approach to factory automation, where machinery is expected to identify irregularities instead of allowing defective work to continue farther down the production line.

The latest development takes that idea further by giving the robot the ability to recognize a condition, decide how to respond and check its own work afterward.

Toyota GAZOO Racing sees motorsports as a test ground not only for cars but also for the methods used to build them. Race programs expose engineers and production workers to problems that may not appear as quickly in conventional manufacturing.

In this case, a lengthy roll cage job in Finland eventually led to a new welding process, followed by an AI-assisted production system now making kart frames in Japan.

Yaskawa and GR plan to continue using the system in actual production to improve its capabilities. GR also intends to apply lessons from racing to other manufacturing technologies as it looks for areas where workers and automated equipment can each handle the tasks they do best.