Kirobo, the mini-robot / Japanese Space Agency marketer, has spoken his first words in space after being launched last month. The University of Tokyo and Toyota research project wished Earth “good morning” and mouthed other space platitudes from his perch at the International Space Station. The bot can also recognize voices and will converse with astronauts as part of his mission goals. Then, after he’s lulled them into a false sense of security…
Filed under: Robots, Transportation, Alt
Kibo, the Japanese communication robot that will eventually join up with the rest of the crew aboard the International Space Station (ISS) later this summer, will also need to suit up and undergo some sort of “training”, if you will, just like any other astronaut worth their salt. Having said that, Kibo underwent some zero gravity testing of its own recently, which is part of the Kibo Robot Project that was organized by Dentsu Inc. after responding in kind to a proposal put forward by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency.
Kibo’s final design was also unveiled, where it received most of its design inspiration from a commercially-available kit known as Robi, standing approximately 13.4 inches in height, while tipping the scales over at 2.2 pounds. Toyota, a company that most of us would have associated with cars, has contributed natural language processing technology so that Kibo can understand Japanese speech. It will respond accordingly via a synthesized voice, and will boast of a camera which gives it facial recognition capability.
By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Jimmy The Robot Aids Stroke Patients, Japanese Robot Suit Gains Worldwide Rollout Approval,
Robots aren’t only taking over our duties as factory workers and amusement park guides. They’re also slowly taking over our cool jobs too, like on the International Space Station, where Kibo will serve to entertain Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata with inspirational tweets from earth—and also look adorable floating around in zero gravity. More »
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