Kirobo Speaks from the ISS

Gizmag

Kirobo became the first robot to speak in outer space on 21 August 2013. The robot astronaut, equipped with voice-recognition software from Toyota, sent a greeting to everyone on Earth and a photo to Mirata, the back-up crew member robot.

Kirobo, who only speaks Japanese, won’t have much else to do until November or December—that’s when Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Koichi Wakata, the first Japanese commander of the ISS, arrives. He will conduct the first conversation with a robot in space in the ISS’s Kibo (Hope) Japanese Experiment Module.

Falkor Pet Drone

Falkor Systems

“Pet Drone Pas de Deux” is a collaborative dance piece that gives people the ability to imagine what the world might be like when we all have a flying robot pet—in this case, one that tracks, follows, and films you.

In the future, humanity will develop strong relationships with their robots, relationships that could expand towards feelings beyond just collaborative friendship, approaching even love. The Falkor “Pet Drone Pas de Deux” piece asks, “When we love our robots, will it matter if they are human or not?” The conceptual demonstration uses open source computer vision technology and a common off-the-shelf toy UAV platform to fly and autonomously interact with its partner.

Festo | BionicOpter

Festo

Like its model in nature, the BionicOpter can fly in all directions, hover in mid-air and glide without beating its wings.