Video: ISS crew to get basketball-sized floating AI assistant
A floating orb will be the first AI assistant to help humans in space.
Let's get the low-hanging fruit out of the way: "I'm sorry, Dave. I'm afraid I can't do that."
Developed by Airbus[1] in partnership with IBM[2], the Crew Interactive Mobile Companion (CIMON, for short) weighs eleven pounds and will act as a kind of floating brain to assist astronauts during mundane mission duties.
Read also: Exomedicine arrives: How labs in space could pave the way for healthcare breakthroughs on Earth[3]
It's already launched as part of a cargo shipment that weighed about 2.7 tons and included food and water. The cargo is in a Dragon capsule that will detach from the Falcon 9 and dock with the ISS on July 2. It's expected that CIMON will return to Earth on Dec. 12.
Roughly the size of a basketball, the 3D-printed plastic and metal orb weighs 11 pounds on Earth and runs a modified version of IBM's Watson. Astronaut Alexander Gerst tested the device. During mission tasks aboard the ISS, Gerst will view procedures on CIMON's screen.
As the astronaut advances through the steps of the tasks, CIMON will track his progress and make suggestions on how best to proceed. And, like tabletop assistants, CIMON recognizes speech, has a synthetic voice, and is capable of some interaction.
It's been trained to identify Gerst via facial and speech recognition. By now we're used to that functionality here on Earth, but in space the interactivity could have far greater relevance.
According to Airbus:
With CIMON, crew members can do more than just work through a schematic view of prescribed checklists