AIRBUS.COM
A.I. in space by most of us is imagined as a super inteligent on-board computer with unlimited knowledge which is going to take over the ship and try to destroy humanity. Yes, we will never grow up and visions straight from Sci-Fi movies won’t leave our man-child brains.
However, nobody has sent a real HAL 9000 to space (yet).
KAMIL PODWORSKI
CIMON (Crew Interactive Mobile Companion) is a newborn child of Airbus, IBM and German Aerospace Center, is’s a floating, self-aware, intelligent robot which is designed to help astronauts with their stay in space. The space travellers new buddy is slightly larger than a volleyball, it has an eight inch screen, observes the world with numerous sensors and moves freely using fans and fins. Also the bot has an IBM “brain” connected to an enormous database, which allows him to constantly learn and develop.
Although CIMON UI looks like if it would be from 90s Sci-Fi movie, don’t let that mislead you, it’s a really intelligent robot running on Ubuntu and powered by IBM Watson supercomputer. It can interact with people, develop social skills and has huge potential to be important part of space travelling development.
“It’s a kind of flying brain” – Manfred Jaumann, Airbus’s head of microgravity payloads
The bot is supposed to be scientific and logistical help but also an emotional support for International Space Station crew. It can follow astronauts, respond to voice commands and among others, play your favourite tunes. Currently its knowledge and possibilities are limited to basic tasks, but its creators believe that development is a matter of time and tests.
“Don’t you like it here with me?” – CIMON
A video of CIMON in action was recently uploaded to ESA youtube channel. We can see how the bot is engaging with European Space Agency crew member, Alexander Gerst, accusing the astronaut of being mean and blasting Kraftwerk tunes.