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Cimon-Artist-Depiction

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched to the International Space Station (ISS) in the wee hours Friday morning. The unmanned mission will bring new supplied and instruments to the station, along with something a scrap… unlike. A floating robotic head called CIMON (Crew Interactive Mobile Companion) volition before long exist buzzing effectually the ISS.

CIMON is a project from High german Aerospace Center, Airbus, and IBM. The floating head will arrive at the station on Monday every bit the autonomous Dragon capsule links up with the crew. At its nearly bones level, CIMON will deed as a flying camera. Using fans and maneuvering fins, CIMON will zip effectually the station to serve as a camera to monitor experiments and repairs.

This robot doesn't accept a torso, but IBM seemed peachy to avert any direct HAL 9000 comparisons. Rather than an unsettling red heart, CIMON has a pleasant face adorning a large brandish on the front (if a spherical robot has a front). It weighs in at eleven pounds (five kg) and is a little larger than a man head.

Astronaut Alexander Gerst will conduct all the initial testing of CIMON — CIMON was really trained to recognize Gerst'due south voice and appearance. During their time together, the pair will behave three procedures. The human being and robot will work together to solve a Rubik's Cube. That'south fun, merely the robot will too help with an experiment on crystal formation in space. It will also assistance Gerst on a circuitous medical experiment by acting as a camera relay.

CIMON learned to recognize people.

This robot is more than a flying camera — it can also chat with the coiffure using IBM's Watson AI. Information technology understands natural language and can respond to many queries. It also learns over time to become more than useful to ISS crew. The AI has been tuned to sympathise space lingo and common issues that popular upward aboard a space station. IBM believes that CIMON's presence and ability to brand small talk volition also help astronauts cope with the stress of spaceflight. For case, if CIMON thinks an astronaut is expressing a longing for domicile, it can reply in a more than "sympathetic" voice.

There are no plans to bring CIMON back to World. IBM hopes the floating AI caput will remain active on the ISS for years to come up, where it volition help conduct experiments and listen to everyone's issues. Someone just has to remember to recharge it every now and and so.