GAZOO Racing and Yaskawa Electric have jointly developed an autonomous robotic welding system and begun using it to produce GR Kart frames at the Gamagori GR Kart Workshop in Aichi, Japan.
The companies say the installation entered use in September 2026. It combines Yaskawa’s Motoman NEXT industrial robot with knowledge gained from their Sequence Freezing Arc Welding process. The robot identifies conditions including gaps between frame pipes and temperature, performs the weld, checks quality after welding and makes corrections autonomously.
GAZOO Racing traces the project to a production issue identified at its World Rally Team operation in Finland in 2023, when a roll cage took two to three weeks to fabricate on site. Toyota and Yaskawa subsequently developed the SFA arc-welding method in 2024. Toyota says that process reduced roll-cage production to three days while improving weld quality and strength and reducing weight; the method has since been used for cars competing in the Super Taikyu Series.
The new deployment moves the collaboration from a motorsport fabrication method into repeatable kart production. Toyota says autonomous recognition, inspection and correction have reduced GR Kart costs, but the release does not quantify the saving, disclose installation or operating costs, publish defect-rate data or identify an independent validation of the claimed quality gains.
This is therefore a verified production deployment, not evidence that the same robotic cell is operating across Toyota’s wider vehicle plants. GAZOO Racing says it intends to continue refining the technology through practical use and to apply motorsport-derived learning to manufacturing processes as well as vehicles.
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