| By Business Wire |
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| November 28, 2012 11:00 PM EST |
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Dentsu Inc. (TOKYO: 4324; ISIN: JP3551520004; President & CEO: Tadashi
Ishii; Head Office: Tokyo; Capital: 58,967.1 million yen) announced
today that the humanoid communication robot being developed under the
KIBO ROBOT PROJECT, a joint research project being carried out in
collaboration with the Research Center for Advanced Science and
Technology, the University of Tokyo (Director: Dr. Yoshiaki Nakano;
hereinafter "RCAST") and ROBO GARAGE Co., Ltd. (CEO: Tomotaka Takahashi;
hereinafter "ROBO GARAGE"), is expected to be completed in February
2013. In the summer of the same year, it will be sent to the Japanese
Experiment Module "Kibo" in the International Space Station.
The KIBO ROBOT PROJECT, whose aim is to create a humanoid communication
robot that will be a companion for the Japanese astronauts who will be
living in the Kibo Experiment Module, was jointly submitted by Dentsu,
RCAST and ROBO GARAGE in response to the call last year from the Japan
Aerospace Exploration Agency (President: Keiji Tachikawa) for a
feasibility study proposal on the theme of solving social issues in the
experiment module. The proposal was accepted, and the project team has
been working for more than a year on developing a robot that can
communicate with the astronauts via autonomous actions and remote
operations. The robot will also transmit information from the Kibo
module to Earth.
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Dimensions:
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Height: 34 cm, Width: 18 cm, Depth: 15 cm (approx.)
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Weight:
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1000 g (approx.)
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Language:
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Japanese
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Main features:
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Voice (speech) recognition, natural language processing, voice
(speech) synthesis, telecommunications functions, communication
actions, facial recognition camera, recording camera
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● The design and specifications are subject to change.
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● The coloring, speech and voices of the two robots (one in space
and one on Earth) may differ slightly.
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● The design data can be downloaded at: http://kibo-robo.jp/
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In winter 2013 the robot will come face-to-face with Koichi Wakata, the
first Japanese commander of the International Space Station, and will
take part in the world's first conversation experiment held between a
person and a robot in outer space. A second robot with the same
specifications will be built to serve as a backup and for demonstration
purposes on Earth.
Together with leading engineering companies in Japan, RCAST and ROBO
GARAGE have been working on the development of the robot hardware, while
Dentsu has been involved in the creation of the conversation content.
Toyota Motor Corporation (President: Akio Toyoda; hereinafter "Toyota"),
a new addition to the project team, is responsible for the voice
recognition and natural language processing functions that comprise the
robot's intelligence. Through its participation in this project, Toyota
will gather data and collate the accumulated technology that is
instrumental to interactive services as well as the development of the
"Toyota Partner Robot" that can coexist with people.
The project collaborators hope that the project's activities will
disseminate Japan's technological strengths to the international
community, and make a contribution to the development of industry and
science education.
Project Team Members
Dentsu Inc.
Research Center for
Advanced Science and Technology, the University of Tokyo
ROBO
GARAGE Co., Ltd.
Toyota Motor Corporation
Japan Aerospace
Exploration Agency (cooperation)
Technical Collaboration
Japan Manned Space Systems
Corporation
Vstone Co., Ltd.
crossEffect, Inc.
YUKAI
Engineering
Futaba Corporation
HOYA Service Corporation
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