Kirobo, world’s first talking robot sent into space by Japan.

The first talking robot which can converse with a human being has been launched into space by Japan in a bid to improve the relationship between robot and its maker, human beings.

This is also to see the effect of the social robot on astronauts who have been in an isolated environment for an extended period of time. Kirobo was launched amidst the 3.5 tons supplies of water, food, tools that was sent to the International Space Station (ISS) through a rocket.

Image: Space.com

The rocket was launched from Tanegashima Space Centre in the island of Tanegashima in Japan. Kirobo was derived from the Japanese word ‘kiro’ which means hope and robot. It is expected that the talking robot will land on the ISS by 10th of August and is expected to be there till December 2014.

The robot was made by Tomotaka Takahashi and is expected to converse with the new commander of the space station, Koichi Wakata who is expected to join the robot at the International Space station by the middle of November this year. Kirobo will be able to recognize Wakata due to their previous conversations on earth, their conversations will also depend on past interactions.

Kirobo is only about 34cm tall and weighs about 1kg. Kirobo will record every interaction between it and people in the ISS and will speak native Japanese. Kirobo has a twin robot which is named Mirata however; Mirata is not going to space with Kirobo.

Mirata will be on earth to monitor the performance and any problem Kirobo may encounter in space. Kirobo has been tested on earth (which includes voice and facial recognition software and natural language processing) before this voyage but the most difficult part of the tests was its performance in a non-gravity environment.

“I wish for this robot to function as a mediator between a person and machine, or a person and the internet, and sometimes even between people.” Takahashi explained in an interview with the BBC.

Kirobo gave a statement at a press event in June: “I want to help create a world where humans and robot can live together”. Mirata also said last month that the mission is “one small step for me, a giant step for robots.”

Kirobo was part of the Kibo Robot Project which is a partnership between the University of Tokyo, car manufacturer Toyota, and Japanese advertising agent Dentsu.

It is also expected that carmaker, Toyota is keeping tabs on this new development and will look to use it to improve robots in its manufacturing firm, later in the future