A smart assistant designed to help astronauts carry out tasks and monitor their mood while they’re working has been sent up to the International Space Station (ISS).
The spherically shaped CIMON-2 (Crew Interactive MObile companioN) was built in Germany by Airbus and can freely fly around the ISS.
It is able to show and explain information and instructions for scientific experiments and repairs and provide voice-controlled access to documents and media so astronauts can keep their hands free.
It can also be used as a mobile camera to save astronaut crew time and could be used to perform routine tasks, such as documenting experiments, searching for objects and taking inventory.
CIMON can also see, hear, understand and speak and orientates itself using its ‘eyes’ – a stereo camera and a high-resolution camera that it uses for facial recognition – as well as two other cameras fitted to its sides which it uses for photos and video documentation.
CIMON also comes equipped with ultrasound sensors that can measure distances in order to recognise potential collisions. Its ‘ears’ consist of eight microphones to identify directions and an additional directional microphone to improve voice recognition.
(eandt.theiet.org)
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