kirobo – Robohub https://robohub.org Connecting the robotics community to the world Sun, 04 Oct 2026 22:23:57 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.1.3 Talking robot sent into space https://robohub.org/talking-robot-sent-into-space/ Sun, 04 Aug 2013 13:43:00 +0000 http://www.therobotreport.com/index.php/blog/post/talking_robot_sent_into_space/

Kirobo, a 13” humanoid robot, was launched today and is on its way to the International Space Station.

A mashup of the Japanese word for hope, “Kibo”, and “robot”, Kirobo is designed to be a companion and communicator for Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata who is expected to arrive at the space station later this year.

Designers from Dentsu, the University of Tokyo and Toyota have worked together on the Kibo-Robo Project to enable the little robot to be able to work in a gravity-free environment and use facial and voice recognition and natural language processing to be able to speak and provide information upon request from Wakata.

Kirobo2

I wish for this robot to function as a mediator between person and machine, or person and Internet and sometimes even between people

said robot designer Tomotaka Takahashi.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqMRGqnisGM

[Photo credit: Kibo Robot Project]

]]> 2 cute robots: one funded by Japan’s Space Agency the other by Kickstarter https://robohub.org/2-cute-robots-one-funded-by-japans-space-agency-the-other-by-kickstarter/ Sun, 30 Jun 2013 10:47:00 +0000 http://www.therobotreport.com/index.php/blog/post/2_cute_japanese_robots_one_funded_by_japans_space_agency_the_other_by_/ kirobo-and-friend

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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