Japanese astronaut will be bringing a small talking robot into space. Don’t let it operate the pod bay doors.

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When astronaut Koichi Wakada heads up to the International Space Station in August, he’ll have with him a little friend– a 13 inch tall robot named Kirobo. The robot will be able to carry on conversations with the astronauts on board to a certain extent. Or it, may gain self-awareness, realize the hopelessness of its predicament and murder everyone on board. Flip a coin.

According to its website, the Kibo Robot Project‘s goal is to “help solve the problems brought about by a society that has become more individualized and less communicative,” by giving people robots to talk to. The model that will go into space is called Kirobo, a play on ‘robot’ and ‘kibo,’ which means ‘hope’ in Japanese. The small robot can speak Japanese, recognize facial features, and learn from past recorded conversations to improve its communication.

When Wakada takes his position as the first Japanese commander of the International Space Station, he will have Kirobo to talk to in his own language. Barely more than a foot high and weighing only 2 pounds, the robot won’t be doing any physically demanding tasks, but it can be used to relay messages to Wakada from the control room, according to its creator Tomotaka Takahashi. A second robot, Mirata, will be stationed on Earth to monitor problems with its space-bound buddy.

Takahashi said that he was inspired by Astro Boy, and wants to create more human-like robots. He also talked about creating a robot that people could carry in their pocket like a smartphone.

Via

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