Meet TOMO: The Wheeled Robot Built for Classrooms
Rice Robotics has introduced TOMO, a friendly wheeled humanoid robot designed to help students learn coding, reading, and STEM in school classrooms.
Imagine walking into your school laboratory in the morning and being greeted by a cheerful machine rolling towards your desk. On 16 October 2026, robotics company Rice Robotics HK officially introduced TOMO, a friendly new helper created especially for schools and educational spaces in Hong Kong.
This exciting TOMO classroom robot is not built for dangerous factories or rough outdoor tracks. Instead, it is designed to glide gently across school corridors, helping young students explore science, technology, engineering, and mathematics in a fun and interactive way.
What happened?
The clever creators at Rice Robotics HK, which is a joint venture of Axonex AI Group, designed this robot to be an approachable learning companion. Its name comes from the Japanese word tomodachi, which translates to friend.
Unlike big industrial robots that use legs to climb over uneven terrain, TOMO moves around on a stable wheeled base. This wheeled design helps it travel smoothly and safely across flat classroom tiles, library floors, and indoor school spaces without losing its balance.
TOMO has several neat features that make it easy for children and teachers to use every day. On its head, the robot features an expressive digital face that can show friendly expressions. On its chest, there is an interactive touchscreen display where pupils can tap through lessons and school activities.
The robot also has two-finger parallel mechanical grippers on its arms. These special mechanical hands allow TOMO to carry out simple classroom tasks, such as light book handling for the teacher. In addition to moving small objects, the robot can broadcast important school alerts so everyone hears morning announcements clearly.
Most importantly, TOMO is designed to assist learners with interactive reading, coding practice, and hands-on STEM coursework. Students can watch how computer instructions turn into physical movements right before their eyes.
The big debut happened alongside the grand opening of the Embodied AI International Applications Hub. This centre was set up by the Hong Kong Industrial Artificial Intelligence and Robotics Centre, also known as FLAIR, under the Hong Kong Productivity Council (HKPC).
Rice Robotics HK signed a formal agreement with FLAIR to test and validate TOMO in real-world educational and industrial scenarios. Rice Robotics founder Victor Lee explained that this special collaboration allows developers to observe how educational robots interact with students and teachers in actual school settings, helping them continuously refine and improve how the robot performs.
Why does it matter to you?
Have you ever worked on a tricky coding project or tried to understand a tough science experiment? In schools across India, more and more students are discovering the fun of tinkering with computers, robotics kits, and STEM challenges.
Having a helpful companion like TOMO inside an educational space makes difficult concepts feel much friendlier and easier to grasp. Instead of merely staring at a flat computer screen, you can see artificial intelligence at work in real time.
You could learn how to write a simple programme to command a robot, test your ideas instantly, and watch how technology solves daily classroom problems. Seeing robots perform helpful tasks can inspire curious young minds across Indian classrooms to become future engineers and inventors.
Words to know
- Humanoid: a machine or creature that has a body shape resembling a human being, often with a head, arms, and a torso.
- STEM: an educational term that brings together four exciting subjects: science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.
- Parallel grippers: mechanical robotic hands with two fingers that open and close in a straight line to grasp small items.
- Simulation: a computer model used to test how something works virtually before trying it out in the real world.
Did you know?
TOMO gets its friendly name from the Japanese word tomodachi, which means friend, because its creators wanted pupils to view it as an approachable learning buddy rather than a cold metal machine.
Think about it
If you could invite a wheeled helper like TOMO into your school tomorrow, what helpful classroom chores or coding lessons would you want it to help you with first?
Quick quiz
What Japanese word inspired the name of the classroom robot TOMO?
- Tomodachi
- Origami
- Sensei
See the answer
Tomodachi
Sources
This story was prepared by the Kids Gazette news desk with the help of AI research and writing tools, using the sources listed above.
