Kirobo, a knee-high talking robot with red boots and a black and white body, has blasted off from Japan for the International Space Station to test how machines can help astronauts with their work.The Japanese-speaking robot, equipped with voice- and facial-recognition technology, was packed into an unmanned cargo vessel along with tons of supplies and equipment for the crew of the orbital research base.The cargo vessel, launched from the Tanegashima Space Center in southwestern Japan on Sunday, will arrive at the outpost on Friday, according to the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's website.
Six-legged robot loses a leg, thinks about it, trundles on regardless, Kirobo said it "hoped to create a future where humans and robots live together and get along".As it carries on the first robot-human chats in space, Kirobo's main conversation partner will be Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata, who is expected to take off for the space station with six other crew members in November.Wakata is due to take'mand of the'plex, a $100 billion project by 15 nations, next March. Kirobo - jointly developed by the University of Tokyo, Toyota Motor Corp and Dentsu Inc - will stay in space until late 2014.No need to feel alone in the vastness of space anymore -- thanks to the world's first talking robot astronaut.
Kirobo, the 2.2 pound creation of Tokyo University's Tomotaka Takahashi , has taken off in an unmanned rocket also carrying supplies for crew onboard the International Space Station. He will a'pany astronaut Kochi Wakata the future'mander of the International Space Station once he makes it to his destination.What for? To keep him'pany, of course. Kirobo is part of a study to see how machines can lend emotional support to humans that have to be isolated in space for extensive periods of time. He will relay messages from the control room to Mr. Wakata, record all their conversations, and is even capable of remembering Mr. Wakata's face once they meet again up among the stars.
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