TOKYO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dentsu Inc. (TOKYO: 4324) (ISIN: JP3551520004) (President & CEO: Tadashi Ishii; Head Office: Tokyo; Capital: 74,609.81 million yen) announced today that Kirobo, the robot astronaut that spent eighteen months aboard the International Space Station (ISS), is scheduled to return to Earth tomorrow.
According to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in the USA, Kirobo will board SpaceX’s CRS-5 Dragon cargo supply spacecraft at 7:09 p.m. on Tuesday, February 10 (Greenwich Mean Time) and leave the ISS. The spacecraft is expected to splash down in the Pacific Ocean at 0:44 a.m. on Wednesday, February 11 (Greenwich Mean Time). A debriefing session on Kirobo’s return to Japan is scheduled to be held in Japan in late March.
Kirobo and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Koichi Wakata held the world’s first conversation experiment between a robot and a human in outer space, and conducted research for a future in which humans and robots coexist.
Robot astronaut Kirobo was developed under the KIBO ROBOT PROJECT, a joint research project carried out in collaboration with the University of Tokyo’s Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology, ROBO GARAGE Co., Ltd., Toyota Motor Corporation, and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).
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Kirobo’s basic specifications |
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| -- | Dimensions: | Height: 34 cm, Width: 18 cm, Depth: 15 cm (approx.) | ||
| -- | Weight: | 1000 g (approx.) | ||
| -- | Language: | Japanese | ||
| -- | Main features: | Voice recognition, natural language processing, voice (speech) synthesis, telecommunications functions, gestures, facial recognition camera, recording camera | ||
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Key project developments to date |
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| Nov 29, 2012 | The project is announced; the public begins proposing robot names. | |
| Jun 26, 2013 | Kirobo and backup (ground) crew member Mirata are completed and introduced at a press conference. | |
| Aug 4, 2013 | Kirobo leaves Japan for the ISS aboard the Kounotori 4 transfer vehicle from the Tanegashima Space Center. | |
| Aug 10, 2013 | Kirobo arrives at the ISS. | |
| Aug 21, 2013 | Kirobo speaks his first words in outer space: | |
| “On August 21, 2013, a robot took one small step toward a brighter future for all.” | ||
| Nov 7, 2013 | JAXA astronaut Koichi Wakata boards the Russian spacecraft Soyuz and arrives at the ISS the same day. | |
| Dec 6, 2013 | Kirobo and JAXA astronaut Koichi Wakata hold the world’s first conversation experiment between a robot and a human in outer space. | |
| May 14, 2014 | JAXA astronaut Koichi Wakata returns to Earth. | |
| Feb 11, 2015 | Kirobo scheduled to return to Earth. | |
Kibo Robot Project Official Site: http://kibo-robo.jp/
[About the Dentsu Group]
Dentsu is the world’s largest advertising agency brand. Led by Dentsu Inc. (Tokyo: 4324; ISIN: JP3551520004), a company with a history of 113 years of innovation, the Dentsu Group provides a comprehensive range of client-centric brand, integrated communications, media and digital services through its eight global network brands—Carat, Dentsu, Dentsu media, iProspect, Isobar, mcgarrybowen, Posterscope and Vizeum—as well as through its specialist/multi-market brands including Amnet, Amplifi, Data2Decisions, Mitchell Communications (PR), psLIVE and 360i.
The Dentsu Group has a strong presence in 124 countries across five
continents, and employs around 40,000 dedicated professionals. Dentsu
Aegis Network Ltd., its global business headquarters in London, oversees
Dentsu’s agency operations outside of Japan. The Group is also active in
the production and marketing of sports and entertainment content on a
global scale.
www.dentsu.com
