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2 cute robots: one funded by Japan’s Space Agency the other by Kickstarter


by
30 June 2013



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Japan’s cute talking robot will take off August 4th for the Space Station. Kirobo, a 13” 2# mini-humanoid robot remembers faces, can move its head and arms, and is expected to help keep company and have conversations with the Japanese astronaut aboard the station including relaying information to and from the ground crew.

Rapiro, a UK Kickstarter success story, is a low-cost kit designed to work with a Raspberry Pi, the credit card sized computer that runs Linux. The kit with Raspberry Pi and camera module is expected to sell for about $400. When assembled the little robot can be controlled by a smartphone or game controller; with the camera module installed you can make a mini-security robot.



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Frank Tobe is the owner and publisher of The Robot Report, and is also a panel member for Robohub's Robotics by Invitation series.
Frank Tobe is the owner and publisher of The Robot Report, and is also a panel member for Robohub's Robotics by Invitation series.





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