Flying AI Droid CIMON Will Help Astronauts in ISS

Airbus and IBM has created an artificial intelligent flying droid, CIMON, to assist a European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut in the International Space Station (ISS).  CIMON (Crew Interactive MObile Companion) is a ball shaped droid with 32 cm diameter and weighs 5 kg (11 pounds). Airbus created it using 3D printing technology. It is mainly made up of plastics and metals. It has 8-inch display and uses Watson AI technology to acquire knowledge. 50 people from Airbus, DLR (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft or German Aerospace Center), IBM and the Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich (LMU) were worked on CIMON. 

(CIMON AI Droid. Photo Courtesy: Airbus)

CIMON is delivered to ISS by SpaceX. It is the first artificial intelligent robot in the space. It is specifically trained with a German astronaut, Alexander Gerst. It can recognize his face and voice and help him in complex experiments. It can also interact with other crew members. It can identify moods of the crew members and interact with them suitably with its emotional intelligence. The cameras and propellers in CIMON will help it to fly around the space station. 

It will assist Gerst in studying crystals, a medical experiment and solving Rubik’s cube. All the communication with CIMON will be stored in cloud and its AI work will also be processed in cloud. So, people from the Earth can improve its ability further. The 8-inch display of this flying assistant will help astronauts to view procedures, videos, advised checklists and other data. It also has an early warning system that can alert crew members if there is any technical problem. 

It will be used by Gerst in the ISS until October, 2018. Airbus has suggested that the flying assistances can be used in hospitals and social care in the future. I hope, it can also be used in moon and Mars missions. Similarly, in April 2018, NASA has approved a robot bees project, Marsbees, to explore the surface of Mars.