Android ‘friend’ for lonely astronauts

Japan’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 website Twitter.

The country’s space agency Jaxa announced this week it was looking at the plan for 2013 using a robot that could communicate with the ground through Twitter – primarily feeding photos, rather than original ideas – and provide astronauts with “comfort and companionship”.

Following up on Nasa’s “Robonaut” 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.

Japan is one of the leading countries in robotics and has a rapidly ageing society with one of the world’s longest life-expectancies.

Improving robot communication capabilities could also help the elderly by providing a non-intrusive means of monitoring health and vital signs and sending information to emergency responders.

“We are thinking in terms of a very human-like robot that would have facial expressions and be able to converse with the astronauts,” said Jaxa’s Satoshi Sano.

The robot is being developed with the advertising and communications giant Dentsu and a team at Tokyo University.

The Nasa robot has human-like head, hands and arms and uses the same tools as station crew members.

The Robonaut called R-2 – from R2-D2 of Star Wars fame – is intended to carry out maintenance tasks and Nasa hopes humanoid robots could one day stand in for astronauts during spacewalks or perform tasks too difficult or dangerous for humans.

For now, the £1.5m Nasa robot exists only from the waist up and is limited to activities within the laboratory.