WASHINGTON: A robot co-developed by Toyota was awarded two Guinness World Records for reaching the highest height as a robot from Earth and for being the first robot to have a conversation in space.
The robot, Kirobo, is a joint five-year project between Toyota, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and Japanese advertising agency Dentsu, according to Toyota.
Kirobo left Earth aboard a HIIB rocket back on August 4, 2013 for an 18 month stay aboard the International Space Station as a companion for astronaut Koichi Wakata.
“On August 21, 2013, a robot took one small step toward a brighter future for all,” Kirobo said 11 days after arriving at IIS.
Weighing approximately 2.2 pounds and standing 13.4 inches tall, Kirobo has a sophisticated system for voice recognition and identifying faces, which makes talking to Wakata easier, according to the Guinness World Records website.
Kirobo is able to stabilize itself under zero-gravity conditions while using a number of pre-set gestures with an on-board voice synthesizing system. One of the main goals of the project was to figure out if a robot could provide psychological support for humans experiencing loneliness, like astronauts on extended stays in space.
Kirobo returned back to Earth last Feburary on SpaceX’s CRS-5 Dragon spacecraft, according to Guinness World Records. The cargo ship splashed down in the Pacific Ocean off California and was back in Japan by Mar. 12.
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