He wanted a robot to watch over his mother: his humanoid now does rounds in care homes in Japan

Since July, Donut Robotics' Cinnamon humanoid has been on trial in Charm Care homes, where it does rounds. The two companies now want to give it another task: helping staff respond to residents' calls.

In practice, when a resident presses the call button, the robot will go to them, take their request and help to answer it. The two companies hope this will ease the workload of care staff.

Charm Care runs more than 100 private care homes in the Kansai region and in Tokyo. According to Robot Newspaper, the company is to invest in Donut Robotics by subscribing to new shares.

The Cinnamon 1 humanoid stands about 170 cm tall and walks on two legs. It is designed for industry, construction, elderly care and security.

Donut Robotics chief executive Taisuke Ono says he founded the company 12 years ago because he wanted to build a small robot that could watch over his mother, who lived far from him.