		<div class="wpcnt">
			<div class="wpa">
				<span class="wpa-about">Advertisements</span>
				<div class="u top_amp">
							<amp-ad width="300" height="265"
		 type="pubmine"
		 data-siteid="111265417"
		 data-section="2">
		</amp-ad>
				</div>
			</div>
		</div><p><a href="http://londonglossy.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/will-tweetbot-join-space-race.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-full" title="Japan's space agency is considering putting a talking humanoid robot on the International Space Station (AP)" src="http://londonglossy.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/min-will-tweetbot-join-space-race.jpg" alt="Japan's space agency is considering putting a talking humanoid robot on the International Space Station (AP)"/></a></p>
<p>Lonely astronauts on the International Space Station may soon be getting an android friend from Japan &#8211; and for those left back on earth, it will tweet.</p>
<p>Japan&#8217;s space agency is considering putting a talking humanoid robot on the space station to watch the mission while astronauts are asleep, monitor their health and stress levels and communicate to Earth through the microblogging site Twitter.</p>
<p>Japan&#8217;s space agency Jaxa has announced that it is looking at a plan to send a humanoid robot to the space station in 2013 that will feed back photos on the internet and provide astronauts with &#8220;comfort and companionship&#8221;.</p>
<p>Following up on Nasa&#8217;s &#8220;Robonaut&#8221; R-2 programme, set for launch on the Discovery shuttle next week, the Japanese android would be part of a larger effort to create and refine robots that can be used by the elderly, Jaxa said.</p>
<p>Japan is one of the leading countries in robotics and has a rapidly ageing society with one of the world&#8217;s longest life-expectancies.</p>
<p>Improving robot communication capabilities could help the elderly on Earth by providing a non-intrusive means of monitoring the robot owner&#8217;s health and vital signs and sending information to emergency responders if there is an abnormality, Jaxa said.</p>
<p>&#8220;We are thinking in terms of a very human-like robot that would have facial expressions and be able to converse with the astronauts,&#8221; said Jaxa&#8217;s Satoshi Sano.</p>
<p>The robot is being developed with the advertising and communications giant Dentsu and a team at Tokyo University.</p>
<p>The Nasa project has human-like head, hands and arms and uses the same tools as station crew members. The Robonaut called R-2 &#8211; in an homage to R2-D2 from the Star Wars films &#8211; is intended to carry out maintenance tasks in the station&#8217;s Destiny lab.</p>
<p>Nasa says it hopes that humanoid robots could one day stand in for astronauts during spacewalks or perform tasks too difficult or dangerous for humans. For now, the £1.5 million Nasa robot exists only from the waist up and is limited to activities within the lab.</p>
			<div style="padding-bottom:15px;" class="wordads-tag" data-slot-type="belowpost">
				<div id="atatags-dynamic-belowpost-69e07a825076b">
					<script type="text/javascript">
						window.getAdSnippetCallback = function () {
							if ( false === ( window.isWatlV1 ?? false ) ) {
								// Use Aditude scripts.
								window.tudeMappings = window.tudeMappings || [];
								window.tudeMappings.push( {
									divId: 'atatags-dynamic-belowpost-69e07a825076b',
									format: 'belowpost',
								} );
							}
						}

						if ( document.readyState === 'loading' ) {
							document.addEventListener( 'DOMContentLoaded', window.getAdSnippetCallback );
						} else {
							window.getAdSnippetCallback();
						}
					</script>
				</div>
			</div>
Discover more from London Glossy Post
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
