“Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata who flew to the ISS on November 7, 2013 onboard Soyuz TMA-11M spacecraft will communicate with Kirobo robot for the first time in December 2013, – android developer Yoritaka Nisijima reported. – Then such experiments will be carried out on a regular basis up to May 2014 when Koichi Wakata leaves the ISS. In its turn Kirobo will return to the Earth next autumn”, – Nisijima stated.
He pointed out that robot (34 cm high, weighting 2,2 kg) was delivered to the ISS in August to contact with Japanese astronaut. Russia was the first to send man to space, America was the first to send man to the moon and Japan will be the first country to send a humanlike robot to space, – Nisijima said.
In course of the pre-flight preparation Kirobo like any other cosmonaut passed lots of trainings on the earth: check of vibration steadiness during the launch, ISS temperature conditions and Zero-G.
A copy of Kirobo – Mirabo robot stayed on the Earth. It can recognize human speech, identify personality and enrich his vocabulary of Japanese. Mirabo’s main task as distinct from Kirabo is to entertain elderly and single people.
Image credit – AFP PHOTO / 2013.KIBO-ROBOT
