The robot Cimon (an acronym for Crew Interactive MObile companioN) took off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on Friday. Its destination is the International Space Station (ISS), where it is meant to support the ISS crew like any other colleague.
Cimon is equipped with artificial intelligence (AI) and can ‘see’, ‘hear’, ‘understand’ and ‘speak’. It can even nod and shake its head. Like its human colleagues, Cimon can conduct small talk, explain repair instructions and perform simple routine tasks such as documenting experiments, searching for objects or recording its own videos.
Cimon was developed by the German Aerospace Center (DLR) with the assistance of specialists from BIOTESC, the Biotechnology Space Support Center. Located in the School of Engineering and Architecture at the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts, BIOTESC acts on behalf of the European Space Agency (ESA).
BIOTESC researchers defined the subject matters that the robot should know as well as processes for integration, commissioning and operation. Procedures for the manuals for astronauts were also developed under the lead of BIOTESC. As soon as Cimon reaches the ISS, BIOTESC researchers in the control room located in Hergiswil in the canton of Nidwalden will direct the commissioning of the robot and follow its movements in outer space.
The data collected will be used to develop Cimon further. In the future, the goal is to use it not only in space but also in fields such as medicine and healthcare, education, and human-machine interaction.
